LinkedIn down but checkout the message

When i went to access LinkedIn today, I realized that it was down. However, instead of the “Page not found”, “Server Maintenance going on”, “Sorry for the inconvenience” etc type of messages greeting me, I found a page which was telling me the same thing but in a more pleasant way:

Lesson to be learnt – you can be sorry for what you have done BUT if you want to express that to your customer without making them feel bad about you, you just need to express it in a pleasant way – the bitter taste kind of goes off. Neat marketing trick which expresses the message but still keeps your customers loyal. Now, how many businesses do that? – I know of a handful.

How about you?

— Thyaga

The cleaner (does not) ring twice …

I don’t know about you guys but in my and wife’s life, one person plays a very important role – the house cleaner. He is probably the busiest person I have ever met – he carries around a hand written diary and his appointment dates are completely full. You cannot request your own date – he gives you one and then you have to work your way around it. Also, the day he comes to the house, we usually get the morning slot (probably, he is generous ?) and so, we have to get up early, take a bath early, have breakfast early so that he gets the complete house for his team to clean :).

Now, take a cue from this and apply this to any business – what kind of business or product that can you develop that will have customers adjust according to what you do and what you make – not the other way around. I cannot think of many but surely, the branded ones have this luxury to start with. But my cleaner Jose is not even a brand name. What is it that he is doing that is making us behave as complete morons and we seem to be wanting to do it again and again? – the answer lies in the fact that he is performing a task for us that is very basic but very important BUT we don’t have time/resources to do it ourselves.

So, the clue then is to develop a product/business that satisfies a very important need of people that they cannot do it for themselves.

Any takers?

— Thyaga

Nifty Salary Search tool

Indeed today launched a nifty salary search tool – check it out. What i like about this tool is the ability to compare searches (and hence salaries) and then make a decision.

For example, check these out:

(1). Difference in salary for a Web Designer and a Web Designer with Ajax skills

(2). Difference in salary for job postings in Iraq and Afghanistan

(3). Difference in salary for a Product Manager in Mountain View and Fremont

….

Really innovative stuff.

Cheers,
Thyaga

Chappel or Dravid – who is the boss

Recently, Ravi Shastri criticized the Indian team and said that India’s captain Rahul Dravid should start calling the shots and not Greg Chappell. This has fuelled a huge debate in India as to who is really the boss of the Indian team- Chappell or Dravid. I think, this could be an 1-off statement that Shastri might have made because he might have been frustrated with the Indian team’s loss. On the other hand, knowing Shastri, I think he might have some genuine reason for believing that something might be wrong.

Anyway, it is disappointing to know the see the way India played. Barring the bowlers
and probably batsmen such as Tendulkar, no one really appeared to be in any sort of form. I really feel that guys like Viru should be given a break for sometime. He should firstly be made to lose weight and get back the inspiration to play as he normally does.

So, what do u guys think about this? – is it Chappell or Dravid who is calling the shots?

— Thyaga

Power of LinkedIn

Today, i linked up with a fellow student at SCU MBA school. After linking with each other, we realized that we have more things in common – he also started his career at SPCNL in Bangalore and he happened to have an ex Vitalect employee as his former manager.

Small world – made smaller by networking sites such as LinkedIn

Cheers,
Thyaga