Hop In, Shop Out! - A tale of groceries and jeans

Time and again, my husband and I share entrepreneurial ideas with each other, critique them, argue a little, refine them, and make a resolution to record them (which is obviously flouted every single time). Next, we research about them, because we know we're not that unique (yet). As suspected, sooner, rather than later, we find someone who has done it already. Exactly one year ago while I was in business school, I read an article about Tesco's virtual aisles in Korea (Tesco's virtual grocery aisles at Korean subway stations) and discussed another idea with him. I said, how about a grocery store that has virtual aisles, where you can touch items to flip and read nutritional facts and ingredients. (Having food allergies myself, I'm too obsessed with ingredients labeling to ignore this - which reminds me of our Allergen Flagger idea, but I'll get to that some other time). But then we thought why come to a store if you can't touch and feel the product, why not just make the store online? Then we thought maybe the virtual aisles should be replaced by stocked aisles with physical products. There can be just 1 each for display, which you could scrutinize before ordering. When your cart is ready, you checkout and walk to the payment kiosk. Meanwhile, automated robot-driven supply systems assemble your articles in package(s). All you need to do is pay with your card, and a window opens where your package awaits to be picked up. One could also keep the entire assembly line behind glass walls, so people could watch their order being assembled as they walk to the payment kiosk. Some people would come just for the experience, while others would come to have the zero human-interaction shopping experience, and yet others would come for the mere convenience factor. These could even be 24X7 grocery stores with motion-sensed lighting - save electricity while offering convenience ;P. Now I do realize that I'm getting carried away, and also that this idea is extremely raw and requires a lot of refinement, but the basic model was interesting enough to keep us engaged for the next few days. We also realized people could be comfortable ordering groceries online, so this store would not really be needed 5 years from now. However, it could work for other articles which buyers need to touch and feel the item being purchased - like clothing.

A few months later, I read about Hointer, and excitedly shared the article with my husband over email (he usually calls this spamming, so I put in a disclaimer saying you better not miss reading this one!). We couldn't help but notice the similarities (Hointer for Men). Since then I've been following Hointer and its blog. They are expanding their customer services (including alterations now), and are also planning to open more stores. I'm glad the retail world is being revolutionized so fast. Don't even get me started on the research going on in the body mapping technologies! I can't wait to visit Hointer during my next visit to Seattle.

The teeter of a tattered newspaper

A well-read colleague shared an interesting article about the change in Information, Media and Entertainment (IME as it is popularly called) landscape from the Economist: News Adventures.

It triggered a series of thoughts as the article's highlights got entangled in the strands of other interesting things I had read, of late, in the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), as well as, digital content monetization. The result was this blog. I could very well be wrong, but it was worth shaking my gray cells up to articulate it in words, and in a writer's own way, thinking out loud.

Advertising would definitely dwindle as print versions fall in the publishing industry. As advertising turns online, the advertising expenses are also driven more by clicks and conversions rather than just the impressions and bought ad space. Per my understanding, New York Times (NYT) might just have found a balanced solution. If they had hidden all their articles behind the paywall, I believe search engines would not be able to crawl and rank their pages at all. This would definitely have impacted the (digital) footfalls on their website when readers searched for a news piece. If, on other hand, they had asked readers to pay for detailed versions of all articles while showing only a summary for free, it would definitely annoy readers, while still being able to feed search engine crawlers to a major extent. Apparently, NYT made a very conscious decision to allow the reader to access a certain number of articles for free, while necessitating payment for more. This ensures 2 things: One, SEO and Social Media Optimization (SMO), and two, stickiness for readers and the potential for creating loyalists.

It's interesting to observe how the competitors would react to NYT's pricing. My sister is a paper subscriber to NYT, and also gets free access to the digital version (as a part of the bundle). Whereas, I have to pay nothing in Washington DC to read the Washington Post on my phone, despite not being a paper subscriber. I wouldn't mind paying for the digital version, but no body is cashing on my willingness to purchase. And then there's the third kind - the news aggregators, like my favorite Flipboard, which conveniently aggregate news from several credible journals and news publishers, bucket it and bring it to your smartphone at the touch of a finger (all for free, did I mention!). It's definitely fun to be a party to this evolution, and I'm sure it'd be more fun reminiscing it all and telling the next generation how we used to read paper-version of news circulations as they would listen to it as an ancient anecdote with their jaws dropping with disbelief at the apparent degree of backwardness we are witnessing today.

I want to ...

1) Explore green energy
2) Keep my parents' ashes after they're gone
3) Explore technology in retail
4) Explore social media monitoring
5) Learn to fly a plane
6) Jump from the "Bridge to Nowhere" in LA facing forward and backward on my 30th
7) Jump from a plane again
8) Start a small restaurant which offers healthy home-cooked meals with calorie and allergy information for busy professionals who don't want to eat out every night
9) Work towards getting parents closer so I can be there for them (unless its too selfish of me and they're better off where they are)
10) Raise my offspring to be environment-conscious when I become a parent (for now my nieces and nephews can be my guinea pigs)
11) Expose my offspring to innovation for green energy
12) Let my offspring choose his/her interest
13) Paint on canvas again
14) Continue walks/hikes/treks and photography
15) Hold an exhibition for friends and family of my favorite pictures a few years later when I have a great collection
16) Learn pottery
17) Learn swimming properly
18) Work-out in some fun way and take care of myself
19) Eat healthier (but keep my desserts)
20) Be a good person; be less selfish to the environment and the people in my life
21) Express more to people important to me
22) Get over my anxiety of meeting strangers in personal settings
23) Be more in the moment
24) Move-in with my husband :-) it's been too long
25) Rock-climb
26) Train myself for treks / mountaineering
27) Go to Alaska and see glaciers
28) Travel (to Italy and live in a townhouse. not a hotel)
29) Create a wall of fame in my house for photographs of events, friends and family
30) Throw a party with red wine at my funeral
31) Remember more of what I read
32) Write more
33) Try my hand at wedding planning as a vent for creativity and the love for detail
34) Explore the option of installing a solar panel if and when I turn into a home-owner

.... I'm sure there's more, it's just not coming to me. As always, I have yet another "To Do" list. So much for living life by lists :-) I'm sure this will be the butt of yet another joke in our living room!

Disclaimer: The list is in no particular order!

Stoned

The other day I saw a gentleman wearing four different rings in all four fingers of his right hand as he gestured while addressing the group of people listening intently to him. One of them, me, was obviously not listening! I was intrigued by the different stones in his rings. Luck, peace of mind, anger management, health - they all come in a tiny colored package sitting pretty in the bed of metal. If only life were that simple!

An image of perfection peeps back

Never been more aware of the things I lack

A blank stare into the mirror

I feel the silent siege of stupor

Not ready to give up yet

Just needed to keep abreast

I said I’m an unfinished work

They said in darkness you’ll lurk

Pushing through to handle rage’s tide

Working hard to turn luck on my side

I said I lay the rules, I draw the lines

They said palms reflect all things divine

Bruised under the feet by the sand and gravel

Wisdom’s momentary loss proved fatal

Laze won the battle over labor

The mind turned tables in their favor

Vigor shattered in that moment of inaction

Forever lost sense of traction

I’m stunned I let my might be dethroned

I’m stunned I let my hands be stoned

Words of wisdom from Shikha Arora, CTO, MAZ Digital

1.   What does your current role as CTO entail at MAZ Digital? Which functions do you perform at MAZ Digital?

Everything you can imagine!! I own the entire technology behind our digital magazine product called MagAppZine. So, I look at what goes into the product, plan the future versions of the product, assess the tablet market trends, plan for future products and the technology to be used for them. I also run the India office, which is primarily a technology office. Due to the huge demand for our products in the Asia Pacific region, I might soon be heading a sales office in India.

2.   Which stakeholders do you communicate with in the organization, and outside?

We are a small team of 11 as of now. Everyone communicates with everyone within the organization. In addition, I also communicate with existing clients (for their specific development needs), prospective clients and investors.

3.   Please share your experience of setting up Indian operations from the scratch. What were the challenges you faced? What were the highs and lows of this journey?

I started setting up the office in December 2011. The first hire was the biggest challenge. We are a high-end technology company, so quality of talent is extremely important to us. People in India still look for job that seems stable, and has brand association, none of which we had to offer J. Thus, it was a big challenge to convince bright people, and show them great future prospects with MAZ. Today, we have a great team with people joining in from companies such as Adobe, Lime Labs, Headstrong, Xavient etc.

4.   Please share some latest projects you have worked on.

We’ve been working on building our digital publishing product called MagAppZine (www.magappzine.com). It’s a SaaS-based self service platform for publishers to create the tablet version of their content, primarily magazines. Since we started our India operations, we have launched two major releases of this product. We have scaled very well, and currently have publishers in ~42 countries and end users in ~90 countries using our product on their tablets.

5.      Which project was your favorite, and what did you learn from it?

Working on the mobile platform was my personal favorite.

6.      How was the transition from an institutionalized large organization to a start-up? Did you face any major changes related to work-life balance after the transition?

The transition was huge and positive for me. I love the pace at which we work at MAZ. Decisions are just one call away, which is generally not the case with large organizations. Also, the euphoria, the thrill and the satisfaction of work is what keeps me going at MAZ.

I am married and a mother of a beautiful daughter. My work life balance is not the best at the moment, but thanks to my highly supportive husband, I’ve been able to manage it all. If MAZ wins, it would eventually be a win for all of us, and my family would be a huge contributor to this success story.

7.      As the head of the India center, what kind of culture do you wish to inculcate into the DNA of MAZ Digital, India? How do you think it should be different from your previous experiences?

I wish to inculcate a very open culture, and form a flat organization, where everyone is approachable and involved in the company’s success story.

8.      You’re a highly successful individual today. But when you started your journey to accomplishment, was it hard to make people believe in you and your capabilities?

Thanks, but this is not what I call success. I have only begun and I still have a long way to go. At every step, I have to make people believe in my capabilities and strengths. It is difficult, but my passion for MAZ keeps me going. MAZ has a compelling product, a very strong team and financial backing. I’m confident it will sail smoothly. After all, people believe in you if you believe in yourself!

9.      How do you balance time between professional and personal life?

Every day in a startup is challenging. We have three centers in New York, Hawaii and India, and each center works in a different time zone which we must keep in sync J. My working hours are currently anywhere between 16-18 hours a day and that includes calls during odd hours. I think self-discipline is the key. I keep separate times for my family and work and I don’t mix them together.

10.  How do you think the growth of women entrepreneurship can be increased in India?

India Inc. does not believe in woman entrepreneurs. It believes almost certainly that women will fail because it’s a man’s world. Many believe that once a woman has kids, they are her foremost responsibility and she should dedicate 100% of her time to that responsibility, always!

It is also related to financial independence of the woman. Even today, many women don’t take big financial decisions in their homes. Entrepreneurship, in many cases, requires capital investment, and many women don’t have the decisive power at home to put money into their idea and turn it into a successful business.

This would change as more and more women are successful. Initiatives like this forum are a great way to set examples for other women.

11.  Do you have any closing message for the future women leaders at the Indian School of Business?

Follow your dreams and don’t settle for anything less than what you’re worth.

ISB Women in Business Club meets 85 Broads

It was going to be another fun evening for Suzanna Thekkekara, Indrani and Ember Melcher, the 85 Broads members who had planned to visit ISB to meet the members of the Women in Business Club.

Suzanna specializes in talent management at a social investment advisory firm called Intellecap. She has been a Chapter Officer at 85 Broads Hyderabad since 2010. Suzanna holds a Bachelor's degree from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, and a Master's degree from the London School of Economics, U.K.  Indrani is working on Project MILLEE, which aims to use mobile phone games to help rural kids learn English while having fun. Ember Melcher is an Associate Consultant at Medium Healthcare Consulting, a Hyderabad-based management consulting firm dedicated to serving clients in the healthcare industry of India.  A US native, she moved to India in 2010 to work in education development, transitioning to healthcare a year later. Ember joined 85 Broads in 2011 and graduated from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, GA in 2009 with a Bachelors in Economics.

They were looking forward to meeting the business leaders-to-be about to graduate from ISB. The members of Women in Business Club were also looking forward to spend time with them. But little did they know that a “networking” event could soon turn into instant “sisterhood”. A great ice-breaking session by the three women set the stage for a frank discussion of sorts about the experiences of WIB members in the world out there, followed by a brief presentation on 85 Broads.

Over the next few minutes, all of us realized how 85 Broads was not just a local network you connect to during your stay in a particular city. In fact, it’s a global nexus of women, which puts you on the international map. As Suzanna puts it, you could be visiting New York for work, and you might already have some new friends there – friends from 85 Broads.

85 Broads provides all its members access to a database of women with their professional profiles, contact information, and other details. From time to time, job opportunities, special discounts, and events such as conferences are also posted on the 85 Broads network.

Currently, there are two active 85 Broads Chapters in India, in Mumbai and Hyderabad. Any new members in other cities would be welcome to take initiative and start new Chapters. A lot of ISB alumni are already members of 85 Broads. Over time, both ISB and 85 Broads intend to further strengthen such ties. So, all the women readers! Someday soon, halfway across the globe, I hope to bump into you at an 85 Broads meet!

Aurora

The cold morning climbs out of slumber.

From the numb embrace of night, it enters.

The sun still wrapped in the arms of a cloud,

crouching away from the chilly winds around.

The damp grass awaiting the golden crown.

A bare icy branch complaining with the slightest frown.

A shy rose peeping from dewy lids.

The leaf's talking to it in words full of mist.

The sun, playing coy, winks at the sky.

It rolls out slowly and embraces with a sigh.

Kisses the rose, takes the branch under a charm.

And, once again the grass feels warm.

One more day and the sun would be gone.

Only to come back, as bright as today it had shone.