Here’s a very comprehensive and well-written guide on writing an RFP. Article is from DARE magazine which, incidentally, I highly recommend. Great, relevant content.

Wish more of the RFPs we received were like this.

Err, actually maybe not. Responding to such RFPs can be even more work!!

PS. The author of the article, Krishna Kumar informs me that the article is also available online here.

My good friend Rashmi wrote this on her blog about Rahul Gandhi’s dubious claim to a Cambridge degree. Must read for anyone taking a serious interest in our country’s future.

http://youthcurry.blogspot.com/2009/04/rahul-gandhi-and-his-dubious-cambridge.html

Please do spread this.

Thanks for this one Pankaj. Extremely interesting…

“Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalised and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to Communism.” – Karl Marx – Das Kapital 1867

UPDATE: Hey, turns out this is not true. Visit http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article5527135.ece. Thanks Vogonpoet.

Wrote a couple of more articles on Digital Media and Marketing which got published online recently. Feedback and suggestions are most valued.

Improving the Quality of Online Leads – Published in July 08 in Thinking Aloud, IAMAI’s online marketing newsletter.

Email Marketing: If you cannot see this opportunity clearly, click here! – Published in June 08 on Alootechie.

If my recent (first) experience on Remit2India.com is anything to go by, it seems to be yet another example of the mercenary ways of some Indian businesses – just launch the product, and market the hell out of it, without really bothering to ensure the service and customer support levels to back up your claims. Here’s my experience in a nutshell:

1. I wanted to remit money from my overseas business account to my India account. The instructions on Remit2India as to what I need to do in my overseas bank’s internet banking account to transfer funds do not match the internet banking interface. So I am unable to fill some details, or have to second guess others.

2. On the 3rd business day I still see the status as Money Awaited in Remit2India so I try and confirm whether they have at least received my money. Bank’s are of course notorious in promptly debited your account but letting you know only after several days in case there’s a problem in the transfer.

3. There is no customer service number I can call on the remit2India site. In fact, unlike most other transaction oriented sites, there is no prominent “Need Help?” prompts.

4. The number they DO have is a toll free number for automated advice only. No one answers!!

5. Tried calling the Times Financial Services board number on the TFS website. No one answers!!

6. Tried using live chat. Service is busy.

7. Tried after 30 minutes. Janhavi comes on the line and confirms that I will receive the money in my account today. I feel relieved, but am a bit suspicious. So I ask her if R2I has received the funds in its accounts. She repeats “as per 3rd working day today it will get converted.”

8. I insist that I need a confirmation that the money has been received by their account, and that I’m not so worried if I get the money later. After some more pressing she reveals “sorry sir i wont be able to check whether or not we recieved your funds.” and signs of with a curt “dropin mail for further quiries”.

9. So I ask how was she confirming that I will receive the funds today when she can’t even confirm if R2I has received the money? And would you believe it she had just disappeared from the chat. Without as much as a thank you/good bye, she had just logged off and refused to respond any further!!

Here’s an edited transcript of the chat session..

Welcome to Remit2India Online Money Transfer Service
How may I assist you?
Janhavi> Thank you for contacting Times Financial Services. This is Janhavi. How may i help you?
You> Hi, I transferred XXXGBP from my BANK UK A/c to BANK India A/c on 6th Mar
You> It still says money awaited and there is no way to trace the money.
You> please help
Janhavi> May I know your customer id or email address in order to process your request?
You> cust ID is YYY
Janhavi> Kindly stay online while I check the details of your remittance.
Janhavi> sir it will get converted today.
You> have u received the funds in your Bank account?
Janhavi> as per 3rd working day today it will get converted.
Janhavi> are you there sir?
You> I need a confirmation that the funds are not lost in transit and that you have received them that’s all.
You> its okay if you convert later today or tomorrow, juts confirm you have received the same.
Janhavi> dear sir, there is now way that your funds will be lost because its a bank to bank transfer .
Janhavi> is the money debited from you acoount?
You> yes, obviously, the money gets debited from our account the moment i make an online transfer, but…
You> it can always happen that BANK UK debits my account but after 1 week finds my transfer details insufficient and then reverts to me after sitting on it for 1 week….
You> you see, your transfer details were not exactly in accoirdance with BANK UK intertnet banking platform..
You> there is no place to enter a BACS code
Janhavi> sorry sir i wont be able to check whether or not we recieved your funds.
Janhavi> as we dont need your BACS code.
Janhavi> dropin mail for further quiries.
You> then how can you say with so much confidence that I wll get the money today? Shouldn’t you check the facts first?
You> are you there?
You> Janhavi??
You> please give me a number in India that I can call? This is very disappointing service from the times group!! Extremey rude and unhelpful!!

END OF CHAT!!

This is a service that deals with money from one of the largest business houses in India – how does Remit 2 India expect to inspire any confidence with this kind of service? The formula is simple:

a. Increase the number of ways a customer can sign-up for your service. Make it as easy as possible. But,

b. Cut-down the number of ways a customer can bother you for some after-sales.

c. And for the ways remaining, err, don’t bother, just leave it to some juniors to manage!

The recent ruling by the Supreme Court of India in the Som Mittal case (read DNA report here) is quite shocking. While I am not debating the responsibility of a company in ensuring the safety and well-being of its employees, this verdict is taking it too far. Sure, if there has been gross negligence or even complicity on the part of the organisation, there is no question about this verdict. However, with all due respect to the tragedy encountered by Pratibha Srikanta Murthy and her near and dear ones, accidents do happen despite one’s best efforts and intents. And as long as the best efforts and intents were there, I don’t know how a CEO can be liable for prosecution for negligence if anything untoward at all happens to them may be. At worst, this ruling could be open to misuse effectively absolving everyone else involved of the responsibility, most of all the victim himself/herself.

Sure, we must learn from these accidents. Make the norms more stringent for corporations in ensuring their employees’ security and well-being so that accidents such as these are avoided in future. More importantly, pass the highest possible penalty to the main culprit – the prepetrator of the crime.

Otherwise, prosecute Jawaharlal Nehru for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi too!  Or the CEO of NASA/US Government for the death of Kalpana Chawla and her colleagues.

Brand Equity yesterday carried an article about the ongoing spate of acquisitions in the digital marketing industry and the race among traditional agencies to catch up on new media. Indigo Consulting was acknowledged among the leading digital agencies in India.

Read the article here.

A really interesting article on Social Networking and how organisations are dealing with it.

It was published as a cover piece on the Financial Times Digital Business supplement this week.

Visit www.ft.com/digitalbusiness and click the main story “You can’t stop them talking”.

Injoy!

I’m sure we’ve all come across resumes with hilarious claims and statements, some inadvertently so.

But one I received today takes the cake and has to go down among the winners.

“Hobbies: Listening Music, Watching Movies, to share my mother in kitchen.”

Unbelievable! And this is real. I got it in my mailbox 30 minutes back!!!

What do we plan to do? We intend to interview his mother…and then see if we need to move our office to his kitchen!

Over the last year or two, anyone employed in business and commerce in India would have encountered the abysmal depths that work ethic has sunk to. Its all very well to say that India has an abundance of qualified (?), skilled (??) english-speaking workforce, but if they don’t know how to conduct themselves in a professional environment, there’s no way we are getting anywhere near being a super power. Already many comparisons are gaining ground on the productivity of the Indian workforce, and with lack of a work ethic, to my mind, it spells the doom of India’s competitive advantage.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against people making hay while the sun shines, and frequently changing tracks towards better opportunities. The demerits of frequent shifts is another issue and can be looked at both ways. Attrition is a natural business problem to be dealt with.

What I cannot even begin to accept is the complete lack of professionalism and common sense in the way people switch. Without so much as a good bye, one fine day they’re just gone without a care for the tasks that were assigned to them. Here are a few examples of behaviour that I have encountered and I think any progressive economy can do without.

1. Not turning up for an interview of arriving late without any prior intimation.

2. Accepting a job offer, making the new employer wait for the joining date, and then not landing up, or if you are lucky, calling the day before the joining date to inform that he/she will not be able to join!

3. Absenteeism without intimation.

4. Resigning the job without adequate notice.

5. Absconding from job.

The problem is of course exacerbated by the fact that there is no (practical) legal recourse especially in serious matters like absconding.

After suffering this for a few years, it struck me that why can’t there be an Employee Credit Rating Bureau which maintains the employment track record of all employees? Just like there is a Credit Rating service for your financial soundness, we could have a one for employability as well right? The thing is that such unethical workforce is actually able to get away with all this. While some firms do have a mandatory reference check and documents to be submitted at the time of joining, many, especially in the SME segment, cannot afford such processes. Moreover, what do you do if the person happily omits mention of a short stint somewhere?

Wouldn’t it be great if there could be a central database which employers could access at a fee where previous employers’ references could be checked? Employers don’t have to be wait to be asked – for any employee who breaks the code, a negative reference could be entered immediately. This could even cover behaviour which is otherwise difficult to capture like not turning up for interviews without intimation, not landing up after accepting an offer, etc.

Of course, one would have to build checks and balances against vindictive employers who could fudge references (and there’s no doubt there are a few of those around), but I’m sure that’s a problem that can be licked. Having such a “listing” in the central database could itself become a positive factor for employees (like a kind of credit certification). Why, this could even be extended the other way round by having am employer rating system.

Perhaps such facilities are available in one form or another for large companies, and maybe this is only a need felt by SME’s. I know we could certainly use something like this at Indigo Consulting.