Author Archives: nimeshbhandari

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About nimeshbhandari

I am heading an Internet business and have over 10 years of experience in mobile and internet domain. I am a technology enthusiast and loves blogging about technology, poems, management and entrepreneurship.

How Google Glass, 3D Printing and drone delivery will change the world!

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Amazon is working on a delivery mode, where goods will be delivered by drones. Unbelievable it might seem, it might soon be a reality !!

It seems nothing short of fairy tale to imagine a world where goods will be printed by a 3D Printer, shipping by drone and one would need nothing more than a pair of glass to search just about anything, order anything and picture anything!

Let us look at each one of them and see potentially how can they change the way we interact, communicate, create and transact in world, and also the impact on business ecosystem.

Delivery of goods by Drone: Termed as Amazon Prime Air, Amazon is claiming that it will be ready technically by 2015-16.  Can it really happen? I already see lot of people questioning it from the perspective of technical feasibility, security aspects and logistical difficulties.  What I understand from the excerpts that drones can be imagined as  programmed courier person who has been programmed to deliver at 5-6 places before it returns to the source.

Undoubtedly, if it happens, it will change the world of e-commerce delivery. Nothing can beat the joy of having instant delivery.. That is one thing which still keeps offline shopping experience kicking and alive.  This post gives a lot of interesting ideas in which the world might change with drone delivery.  I like this one.. the diaper’s are finished..mother orders the diapers on amazon and within seconds it is delivered by a drone. WOW! 🙂

Well looks like it might take couple of decades even after the technology is established for the service to be commercially viable for delivering just about anything. So will it mean the consumption pattern would change JIT.. so people will not stock goods.. needs to be seen what impact it will have on the whole production cycle of goods?

Amazon testing drones © Amazon.com

Google glasses: This ofcourse competes with 6th sense technology made popular with Indian – Pranav Mistry. Well, I am not an expert in claiming which one will win. But one of the, whichever achieves the end objective of merging the digital experience with offline world will win. In the current avatar, Google glass is just a fancy bluetooth connector, but Google is working on the 6th sense experience everybody expects it to deliver.

When that happens, the world will be a hyper-connected and hyper-transparent place, where consumer can at any point of time check the authenticity of the claim/product etc. by going online and dig all information relevant to decision making in minutes. It will completely change the way people shop offline by helping them compare and review items in real time.  Will it be an end of brand, as information transparency will even make a new good product stand out, letting it compete against big brand ?  In this respect, here is an interesting article which says retailers already hate people who use them as showrooms. Google glass will only accentuate it.  Here is another interesting article which mentions what will be the impact on 5 Industries.

Google Glass: 5 Industries It Will Change Forever

3D Printing:  This seems to be most advanced out of the three technologies and might again radically change the world.  Also what appears is that it will first be adopted large scale for industrial use before it gets common for domestic use.

Without getting in-depth of technology which I don’t understand, 3D Printing helps in creating mass customization which today is unviable for most products. From a consumer perspective, consumers will get umpteen choices and customizable goods. From the perspective of industry – it will give birth to lot of small scale industries / entrepreneurs who will run this 3D Printer to customize a mass produced item by a factory.  This article from HBR also says that it will help industries move closer to consumption centre, rather than being near the source of raw material.

This is a very interesting story of a person who tried making christmas gifts using 3D Printing and gave up. So when it evolves for consumer, it will be radical but it is still long way to go.

So what will 3D printing change. With every customer wanting a customized product, how will the production value chain be altered?  Future shops might look like a catalogue with some products on display and based on customer requirement it can be easily customized.. Will it lead to lesser SKUs by brands, with every SKU having customization permutations & combinations defined?  It will SKT ( Stock keeping template) rather than SKU.

With all these technologies becoming a reality, we would be living in a world of instant search, instant customization, instant production, instant delivery and instant sharing.

Imagine, you see a beautiful T-shirt in M&S store, you instantly google and find out the competitive price in online stores of similar design T-shirt, go to Amazon, customize the item, which gets instantly printed by a 3D Printer and get it delivered instantly by drone… WOW!!

So what it did?   You like a M&S T-shirt but are instantly to get a similar T-shirt from a store which you customize based on your needs and get it delivered instantly at half the price of the T-shirt from M&S.

So the brand becomes powerless….

New set of entrepreneurs emerge who can customize the items…

production is instant based on demand..so is very efficient…

Mind Boggling!!

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The Story of House

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The Story of House 

These bricks tell the story of  erstwhile house, through the cavities they now own

The walls stoop to let the nostalgia scoop,

The banyan tree creeped ,to  make the house its story squeak.

 

Father burried his dreams, for his children who were his gleam,

The house was build with his hardships as the foundation,

He stood on his feet to let the building complete,

It was enexact, it was incomplete for the need of cash,

He continued his travails, to let his children and the puppy prevail.

 

The house became home, as all three in the backyard played,

Their experience with the mud, did make the joy sprout,

Their impressions of the play did the walls sketch,

Echoes of their shout made the parents proud,

The boy was their aspiration, the girl was the inspiration.

 

As the mother got busy, the mirror grew old,

He fulcrum of attention shifted to kitchen,

Father calibrated his savings to let children’s education an english engraving

As the chalks on the blackboard walked, valuable lessons form their parents children stocked,

The Gift of future rolled, to make these little  moulds of clay bold.

 

Children got old ,cold, in the college they got enrolled,

The dog took the job early, when the children were still making merry,

The mirror got young as the attention it craved got swung,

The boy attended the dates, while the girl helped her mother clean plates,

Wrinkles spawned the banyan tree, as parents tensions got  trebbled.

 

As time progressed, brother got a job, and sister got engaged,

The cracks on the walls, were embraced by the paints,

As the worries lessened, from the eyes of the parents,  the joy trickled,

When the girl leaved, the house weaped,

With her legs, the plants she trampled, with her own hands she had once reaped.

 

The son got a wife, much to his parents surprise,

As she cornered his attention,  parents unfigured in his calculation,

It took some years for the situation to blow, when the son made the parents,  his intentions know,

The father, the mother, the dog, left the place with their tears all dry,

With time as  the son turned old, as father, in this” own” house was he accosted to let the history unfold.

My other poems are Here!

It So happened

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It so happened that life knocked at my door yesterday..

It was then I realized how detached I Am..

 

And the boat started sailing opposite to the current of life..

On the past it stumbled…on The treasure it fumbled..

When I had my own opinions. When I had my own belief…

When I had the courage to stand for what I stand..

 

But then I notice a fissure..

The water seems to have ravished it all away..

Where expectations rule over the soul..

Where pretense is laced with a jelly of gold…

 

But then the undercurrent had its way

And i “peacefully” played the role in its play

That I knew it was just a dream made of clay..

From My Self Away i have to stay…

My other poems are Here!

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A Trip to Tsango Lake

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As the Roads crawled Teesta, flanked by hills,

We climbed up the valley, to stay with the clouds still.

 

As the peaks of snow suddenly appears,

The fate of the road, the turn, makes it disappear.

But My eyes still gazed for the beauty divine,

Their touch, their ego, so feminine. 

At the hut we stop, to salute the tricolor,

And the echoes of the Anthem are in the valleys fervor,

I dough the snow, on my mates to throw,

As we continue to plough, to let the game grow.

The van we ride, skim pass the falls,

And we notice Tsango, hidden behind the mountain walls.

The sun is born, at the throw of nature’s dice,

In the harmony it stays, with its rays reflecting the ice.

 

The surface of lake, with rays shines bright,

I feel the heat, while the cold is at its height!!

 

We travel down the Silk Road, when dusk is a distance away,

The Snowstorm sweeps our way, as the nature starts its play.

As the roads vanish, we float on the terrain,

And only the expertise of driver, had we to claim.

 

The wind calmed down a bit, to unravel the mystery,

As we rediscovered the waterfall, frozen in history.

 

We were in safe hands, from the weather so rough,

When I broke my sleep, to hear the traffic cough!!

My other poems here!

Ecstasy of Deliverance

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The trumpets have begun, the stage is set

The paranoids have arrived, History is about to be re-written!

The engine of growth, is being fueled by all your sweat and love,

Now it’s time to be obsessive! Obsessive about the customer experience,

Experience you love, and I love, and we all love to share with others,

That sublime, layer of trust which brings smiles on customer’s face!

It is time to reach the ecstasy of deliverance!

Other poems Poems

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The Rising Sun

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This morning, as the day awake,

The sun was shy, soaked in rain.

It watched the rain dance, like an unexpected Mr. Cool,

And greenery mushrooms and flower blossoms all over,

But the time will fly, rain will dry!

Sun’s soft core knows from inside,

That It needs to burn, for it to work hard from transience to permanence,

It must rise, to regenerate the water cycle!

My other poems are Here!

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Internet Business: From Porter’s Five Force to Three Magnets

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Running an internet business, I wonder whether Porter’s five force model makes any sense for the Internet businesses.

Traditional businesses, would create a strategy which limits the Bargaining power of buyers, limits the bargaining power of suppliers, creates barriers of entry for competition and create models so that buyer is not able to replace/substitute the product…

But the internet seems to have redefined all of it…

1. Bargaining power of Buyers:  Rather than curtailing buyer’s bargain power, internet actually enhances it by its very nature

2. Bargaining power of Suppliers: Again, internet businesses typically bring the transparency..unless the company is not very big, suppliers have reasonable bargaining power… example if flipkart tries to squeeze samsung, samsung might decide to abandon flipkart and go to another shopping portal exclusively.. since suppliers are aware that customer switching cost is minimal

3. Threat of substitutes:  Most of the internet businesses have their IPs freely available in public..i mean code base of some algorithm/engine etc.. so technically there is a very high threat of substitutes / competition

So by very nature of the business, customers rule the game, suppliers cannot be squeezed to the hilt..especially the branded suppliers, and threat of competition and substitutes is very high..

If one would have evaluated internet business on porter’s five force, nothing would have made sense.. then why are these businesses getting crazy valuations…

Also, if all forces are against a company, how come this industry creates winners take all companies which are far bigger than No.2

How has the paradigm changed?

1. Customer Stickiness:   Rather than talking about Bargaining power of Customers, this industry speaks about Customer Stickiness… which is why should customer stick around with your product / company?

2. Power of Aggregation: Rather than talking about Bargaining power of Suppliers, this industry talks about Power of Aggregation which again is pro-consumer, denoting how much value you bring to the table for consumers aggregating suppliers and that in a way defines your relationship with suppliers..

3. Speed of Innovation: The model assumes that change is inevitable and only way to defend customer shift to new substitutes is that product constantly keeps on evolving… So speed of innovation defines the fate of the company…

So instead of 5 forces of porter, there are 3 forces – Stickiness, Aggregation and Innovation which defines Internet businesses.. Unlike the traditional way of looking businesses, which assume themselves as fortress and the one which builds the best fort wins, Internet businesses assume themselves as Magnets which attract stickiness, aggregation and innovation..

Why Greater Noida is the true city of future?

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Greater Noida is one of the best planned cities in India and living in Greater Noida is altogether a different experience. I am not just saying it because I live there and I have invested in it, but I firmly believe so.

The green cover in the city, the pollution free environment definitely is something difficult to find in big cities. The city also boasts of Integrated sports complex – which is awesome and pretty reasonable if your kid is studying in JP School.

The city has good quality of life, good housing options, cheap land, lot of student talent and huge tracts of land nearby. All these means an opportunity waiting to happen where the easy availability of young talent would attract KPOs , BPOs and IT Services in the city. Wipro with 6000 people is a live example.

Economic activity in the city are showing signs of improvement. Although the Airport got rejected, a semiconducutor FAB is approved in the city. FABs typically spawn an ecosystem around it and one FAB can completely transform the economy of Gr Noida.   I also see lot of office spaces coming up in the city. Regus has recently opened up their business centre in Greater Noida.  AutoExpo is happening in Gr Noida next year.  Ikea might open their first store in Greater Noida.. so lot of action waiting to happen..

The only and only big disadvantage the city has is accessibility. If the Metro comes through, the city will have a direct link and then the economic activity in the city will boom.. Which KPO will not want to open a shop in Greater Noida when office cost is 1/5th of Bangalore and cheap talent is available in plenty.

I also firmly believe that UP Is next growth story waiting to happen given the shear size of population the state has ( same advantage India has over other countries..)

I am not saying it is a city where you can expect quick returns. Greater Noida has been a lackluster performer in terms of real estate appreciation and people who have invested in it In last 7-8 years, have for obvious reasons regretted their decision.  From investment perspective it is a long term call, especially given the supply on Noida Greater Noida expressway.

Can Greater Noida become the semiconductor capital of India? I think it is a story in the making…

Car Pooling vs Pooling on Public Transport

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Car Pooling is one are where lot of startups have tried to create product but none of them have really worked.. As an Idea, it definitely looks very promising and one which has great potential..

A car pooling marketplace would ideally create a marketplace where car-poolers can instantly look for available cars for pooling and take a ride. For the marketplace to work effectively, the car pool supply has to be scale up very rapidly so that availability to the last mile (where the rider) wants to ride the car.  That is a like a chasm which none of the startups have been able to cross.  Culture might be another issue as highlighted in  this article, but I think it is more to do with scarcity of supply to the last mile.

Let us look at the practical difficulty which I think is quite detrimental for the supply to bulge. A car owner would typically need to go out of his regular route in order to pick / drop the rider – Who likes it when you are late from the office and are facing huge traffic.

Pooling of resources in public transport like Taxi, Auto or even chartered buses on the other hand can work in India.

1. Autos ply everywhere in India ( sans Gurgaon).  So last mile is not an issue. It is much easier to find another rider who is going the same way

2. Even if auto/taxi has to take a detour to pick/drop anybody – Taxi guy earns for that, Riders save money… so everybody gains..

3. People who own car in India – are not looking at earning money through car pool. For them  it is a platform where they can share and in return be carried by another car pooler sometime. Now that is difficult as the rules of the marketplace are not between a supplier and a vendor, but are more around sharing and benefiting..

On the other hand, people who are riding the auto/taxi are looking to save money and doing that they also help the economy/environment save fuel…

Some of the interesting startups in this space

GetJugaad.com, Taxi.to ,Sharedcab , Smart Mumbaikar, NTL Shared Taxi

 

Twitter on Airtel TV and its impact on TRPs

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Airtel TV announced a one of its kind convergence product where your tweets can be seen in DTH. Read more to understand the impact it might have in long term on TRPs

While the product perse looks very innovative, I still fail to understand the proposition for the consumer.  Why should a consumer see tweets on a Big Screen when he can see tweets on the mobile phone in his lap while watching his favorite program on TV.  Especially, when he will anyways have to use his mobile phone to re-tweet or reply to a tweet.

Shall we call it a triumph of Social Media, which has compelled Airtel to bring it in its stable apart from channel content, or shall we call it a triumph of Big Screen in India and tweeter wants to use that channel to grow its usage in India.  Confusing !!

Essentially what Airtel TV is telling consumer to fidget with the device and de-focus their attention on mobile device while watching their favorite program on TV.  TV Channels for obvious reasons will not be happy if the product takes off since it would mean decrease in their TRPs in long term…which might not be good for Airtel TV as well in the long run..

And now the big question.. who is paying whom for the activity? Is twitter paying Airtel for increasing the usage or Airtel pays Twitter for bringing in the offering?

For news reference, Read this!