Certainties & Serendipities

There is a definite need for a social sharing and discussion tool that is unlimited by 140 characters. Among the existing social tools G+ has the potential but in its current form it lacks an essential factor.

Let me start with where G+ fits between twitter and blogs.

I see G+ as a social scratchpad, where I can capture and discuss thoughts doing rounds in my mind. Since these thoughts are not yet well formed, I can’t capture them within 140 characters. Because these are just random rants on many random topics, I don’t want them on my blog.

Another scenario is longer replies to blog posts. Grand daddy of blogging, Dave Winer, believes that comments spoil the voice of the blogger. He encourages (in someway even forces) readers to write their comments as a post in their own blogs. But I don’t want to pollute my blog(s) with replies to posts that I find interesting across the web. A social scratchpad would be the place for it.

Even though it is a scratchpad, I still want to engage others on those random thoughts, because learning happens through those serendipitous interactions. In a blog based commenting system, I am forced to moderate because of spam. Existing moderation system discourages conversation.

Social media sites, on the other hand, promote engagement. They encourage informal conversations, much like real life. By already being a member of the tribe – called circles in G+, I can initiate conversation with anyone. I can also ignore any such initiated replies and comments, if I don’t perceive any value.

Another peripheral benefit that G+ brings is the aggregation of comments made within G+. I leave comments all over the place and there is no single place to aggregate the conversation. Engag.io is just for twitter and it doesn’t add any value better than twitter clients like [echofon].

When all these work together, a spark might be generated in twitter, carried over to G+ and if it develops further there may be a blog post. So the flow of creation might be:

twitter -> g+ -> blog

While G+ does well in all of the above, it fails in a crucial aspect – getting onto G+ is expensive.

Despite the resources at hand, Google is not able to bring a mobile application that makes it easy to get onto G+. On top of it, there is no ‘create’ API¹. If there is one essential factor behind the explosive growth of Twitter & Facebook, it is their API, which enabled integration with every application that is found in mobile. But Google has been adamant in not making a public ‘create’ API.

If Google wants its G+ platform to surpass existing social media sites, it should open it through a ‘create’ API, as early as possible.

Will Google listen?

Every week I post a digest of very fine links. Here are the best links I found in the past week:

• Balance satisficing and optimizing : Whether looking for the root causes of your problem or identifying solutions, you must be collectively exhaustive (CE). That means looking for all the possible solutions. That’s fine in theory but in practice, that induces paralysis by analysis. So you need to learn to balance your quest for collective exhaustiveness with practical considerations.
• Sell the problem : Lesson for consultants: No business buys a solution for a problem they don’t have. And a lot of people aren’t willing to embrace that they have a problem unless they also believe that there’s a solution. So you should both sell a problem and hint that there’s a solution that others are using, or is right around the corner.
• 8 Symptoms Of Social Schizophrenia : Companies are establishing a presence in social media to build their online reputation. They establish levels of service in social media that differ significantly from service levels in other channels. Does your company suffer from this ailment?
• Technology Selection and Cultural Fit : The basic question at hand for most technology selection projects really comes down to “‘what do we need and how much is it?”
• The right way to position against competition : How do you cope with competition, incorporating it into your strategy while not letting it consume you?

Every week I post a digest of very fine links and tweets. Here are the best links I found in past week:

1. How To Create A Killer Social Media Strategy : From big companies to freelancers everybody in on Social Media. In this article Alyson Shontell shares five tips for effectively applying social media for business. First and the best is: It is better to be extensive in fewer social networks than to spread yourself thin.
2. 50 Tips for Becoming a Successful Freelancer : From building reputation to finding jobs. Via Business Pundit.
3. Why Startup Founders Should Stop Reading Business Books : “The problem is that the premise of all of them – whether true or false – is irrelevant to you as a startup founder”, says Rob Walling, a Micropreneur. I think this is applicable not just for starups but for all business owners in general. So what’s the remedy? “..Look for resources that provide actionable take-aways to improve your business and that focus on topics that are specifically relevant to your situation. You want laser-focused, just-in-time learning.” (If don’t know what “Micropreneur” means, go find out in his site).
4. Day 1 – Take a Tour of Getting Results the Agile Way : We got too much to do and not enough time. Can we really achieve what we set to? J.D. Meier posts series of posts for getting results the agile way. Key step: “Monday Vision, Daily Outcomes, and Friday Reflection.”
5. YouTube – President Obama Explains Healthcare.gov :  How often do you see a politician reach out to common public to explain their policy? Despite disagreeing with President Obama on his policies, his use of social media to reach common man should be applauded.

Twitter is becoming a del.icio.us. Not many can provide value in 140 chars. Here are the best tweets of past week:

1. Suppandi: There are two rules for success: 1.) Don’t tell all you know.
2. BentleyGTCSpeed: If you can’t state your value in a sentence, I’m not going to remember it.
3. portnik: Either you run the day or the day runs you.
4. portnik: The things that come to those who wait are usually the things rejected by those who got there first.

The Internet has provided all of us a common platform for communication without any discrimination for age, gender and skills. Each netizen can utilize its potential according their own needs. Ranjan Varma, working in an Indian PSU, is tapping the Internet to spread Financial Literacy among Indians. These days every one is blogging. But Ranjan is creating online financial products by taking advantage of the applications on the cloud – Zoho and Google Docs to name two.

I’m delighted to interview him for this blog post.

Q: What is Personal Finance Literacy and why should anyone care?

Tapping Technology For Financial Literacy - Ranjan Varma

Personal Finance Literacy is highly overrated. It’s actually just common sense. But there are reasons why people avoid personal finance. One, financial services providers use a lot of jargon to obfuscate and confuse. Two, the sellers know more than the buyers (especially the commission involved). Three, because of our own emotions like fear and greed that leads to irrational behaviors and bad financial decisions.

But why should we care? I have been working with a PSU for 20 long years and had I been saving regularly right from 1990 when I joined work and investing them properly, I would be having a networth of approximately Rs 23-24 lacs The assumptions are very simple. I invest 25% of my income every year and get a return of 10% annually. The investments are made every year and not every month. Every month investment will lead to a much higher figure!

But, the actual networth (excluding my House/Ancestral Property) is not even half of that. That means that my less than ideal money management has resulted in a loss of over Rs 10 lacs. Yes, that’s a million rupee mistake!

Q: Lot of us, the IT folks, don’t understand numbers. Are we at a disadvantage in understanding the basic concepts of personal financial literacy?

Infact IT folks would be more comfortable with numbers. But they are put off by the jargons, the information asymmetry and maybe their own fear/greed. So I guess, the problem is not about understanding the concepts, but it’s about applying those concepts to your own unique situation.

We often mistake personal finance literacy as doling out knowledge. But as long as you don’t include the skills and the attitude towards managing your money, the education will not be complete. At this point, it may be worthwhile to point that knowledge, skills and attitude are three important components of any competency.

So, IT folks aren’t at any disadvantage among others. Infact, my target audience would be the IT folks once I get started full time!

Q: Please tell us about the financial products you’ve created.

I built RupeeManager for my own use. I was uncomfortable using an online tracker who can mine my data as they are free to use. Another tracker I tried had too many features and I was phased out by the features!

Once we start measuring our money, we automatically start improving our money management. And that’s what RupeeManager software helps me to get started with.

My RupeeManager primarily helps organize one’s finances and keeps track of where, when and how the money comes and goes.

Other than tracking your earnings and your expenses, it is important to see if your money is working for your future. We have a feature where you can allocate your income among fixed expenses, discretionary expenses, short term savings and long term investments. It’s like assigning goals for your money.

Also, we have built in a financial health check in the software which gives you an idea about your risk profile and how your asset allocation should look like.
To me it’s a simple to use money manager. We will do market testing shortly.

Q: You are a non-IT person. However you have a very active blog, you have built a desktop financial tool, you built another tool on top of Zoho. Do you outsource the technology part of your business or do you do it yourself?

I am a non techie but absolutely love techies who have helped me with my questions (often very dumb questions). So though I have not outsourced the Zoho tool, the Joomla site and my own blog, I am indebted to the techies who have patiently understood my questions and pointed me to the right direction.

I have got the desktop financial tool outsourced because it was beyond me to learn (and use) Java.

Q: What products of Zoho do you use? What is your opinion of their product suite?

I use Zoho Mail, Zoho Creator and Zoho Sheets very often. I use most of their products once in a while.

I love Zoho. Zoho has a much broader product suite compared to Google. Other than their mail, spreadsheet, presentation and document products, they have Zoho Creator (Online database management system), Zoho CRM, Zoho Reports, Zoho Invoice, Zoho People, Zoho Recruit, etc. I think they are a complete Web-IT solutions provider to a business.

Q: How are you marketing your products and services? What percentage of your marketing is online?

Right now it’s through my blog. You asked me for this interview because of my blog, no!

But as I start full time, I will start an online marketing campaign. I will also market through free seminars and workshops.

Q: Until recently, you had a presence in social media. Why did you delete your social media profiles? Do you think time on social media is a waste of time?

I have met awesome people on the social media. I have made many twitter/Facebook friends and they are on my phone book now. Moreover, I am still on the social media through my blog.

Deleting my Twitter account was part of a decluttering exercise. I did try to delete Facebook but it got reactivated as Facebook does not delete your data it seems.

I would not say that my time on social media was a total waste. I made friends, had interesting conversations. But they are a distraction too as I was not able to focus on the priorities. Like even when I was writing a blog post, I would check twitter/Facebook updates in between. I thought it prudent to put a stop to that.

Q: How are you utilizing technology in other parts of your business?

I believe that my future business will be built on a synergy of technology and learning. Technology is a powerful tool but not the panacea.

I am using technological advances made by Google and Zoho to create a better learning environment. Take a look at these examples: India’s first personal finance search engine and India’s first personal finance ask engine

Q: From a consumer point of view, is technology explosion enabling us to have a better financial life or complacent one?

It depends on how we understand technology. Technology is a tool and not the answer to everything, IMO. We can search for information using the technology, but how we apply it to our situation is more important.

Q: Are you planning to branch to You Tube & e-learning to expand your financial services?

Hey, thanks for this idea. I was thinking of getting some videos done. Now I know what to do! Thanks.

Q: What are you currently working on? What are the other services & products we can expect in the future?

I have started working on a book. As I go full time, I will be able to announce the services and products that I will offer.

Q: With the world being flat, are you reaching global audience? Or personal financial services are region centric?

I have been writing to an Indian audience. Generally, the products available in India are not available worldwide and vice versa. But there are many issues other than knowledge of products that have a universal appeal. I follow blogs like “IWillTeachYouToBeRich”, GetRichSlowly and TheSimpleDollar which are US blogs.

I do have visitors across the globe. But I am not sure whether I have been able to provide any value. Maybe I’ll consider this as a good idea.

Q: Mobile technology has a wider reach within India. How can this be tapped for personal financial services?

I just got in touch with EnableM, a pioneer in mobile learning. EnableM creates frameworks for skill development and mobile training courses.
It’s too early to say, but a personal finance service on mobile is totally possible now.

In addition to blogging and creating products, Ranjan conducts Financial Awareness Workshops as well. You can contact him through his website.

I wish him all the best in tapping the technology to spread Financial Literacy.

I got to know Shankar Ganesh via Twitter. Through subsequent twitter interactions I came to know he had established a successful online business utilizing his knowledge of Windows OS. He has written for other popular technology sites too.

Shankar Ganesh

With all of this background, I assumed that he should be at least a college grad. But he surprised me when he sent me a LinkedIn invite. He was just 17 years old. I couldn’t have been more surprised, impressed and proud (he hails from the same town as mine). Since then I’ve been following him with a curious interest. He continues to amaze me. He has served as a marketing intern at Zoho; he is pursuing his public speaking practice and so on. All this while still at college. It is encouraging to know Indian youths possess such entrepreneurial spirits and are already creating waves. Its a pleasure to interview Shankar Ganesh for this blog.

1) Give us a background of how you came about launching your online business?

Honestly, my blog is far from an online business. At least, till I deliver an actual product. It’s an outlet for my creative passion – wrting and for teaching others about what I’ve learnt.

My first blog was launched on Blogger.com after I found the blogging buzzword in online forums. Initially, I wrote reviews of web applications but later I found myself writing how to guides, and tech tips based on my own experience. Throughout, it’s been a learning process – my writing has constantly improved. The money that comes out of it is good – enough to pay my college fee and manage my expenses by myself. I’m thinking of building new sites and communities based around my interests in the future.

2) You are not from one of the popular metros. What challenges you had to face in establishing your business?

Internet connectivity was a challenge, till BSNL (the national telecom network) came out with extensive broadband coverage. It was not that cheap then. Prior to that, I had only dialup as an option which was patheic nonetheless.

I wanted to blog on my own domain, and getting one was another challenge I faced. I didn’t know where the money would come from. Somehow my AdSense pennies added up and finally I invested some of that into getting my own domain and hosting. This may not seem like a location issue, but I think if I had been in a city, I’d had people to meet in person and consult.

3) What are some of the memorable milestones?

There have been many happy moments. Getting featured on the Digg front page, being recognized by some big A list bloggers and many more. But there’s nothing that matches the happiness that I get when someone genuinely thanks me for what I’ve written. Sometimes, it’s students. They’ve found my tips on improving English helpful. Sometimes, it’s others who’ve found a solution to a tech related issue on my site.

4) How Technology has empowered today’s youths of India?

If anyone’s got a doubt, they’ve got Wikipedia to refer today. My Dad didn’t have something like that. If I want to connect with my friends, I’ve got Facebook. My Dad is not in touch with many of his school friends.

Computers are cheaper. Five years ago, let’s say, one kid in a class of 40 had a computer. Now, it’s at least ten. Technology has become affordable. Five years from now, I’m sure that internet connectivity on mobiles will become even more ubiquitous – leading to a lot of opportunities that could be leveraged.

These are probably universal – but I think the mobile explosion in India really happened very quickly.

5) Let’s talk about your stay at Zoho. How did you get into Zoho? What motivated you to spend time as an intern?

I had gone somewhat bored of blogging (I’m waiting for some good ideas to strike) so I was thinking of a good way to spend my summer vacation. Over the last couple of years, I’ve learnt a lot about online marketing, writing and search engine optimization and I thought Zoho would be the right place to do something with those skills.

Zoho is one of the very few IT based “product companies” from India that I admire and respect. I’ve heard about their pretty cool work culture.  I couldn’t think of another IT company in India where I’d fit in.

I approached guys from Zoho on Twitter, showed them my website for some credibility. They liked what I’ve been doing, and approved me. I went there to see in person how things actually work in a web product company, how they execute things, and to meet and talk to new people.

I can safely say that this wouldn’t have happened if not for my web presence.

6) What are the lessons learnt while at Zoho?

Quite a number of things:

Things take a while in companies. It’s not a blog, it’s not a small business, so it takes a while to get things approved. But that’s okay and it’s for good.

You’ve got people with a wide array of skill sets – if you want a comic strip on your new landing page, there’ll be a talented guy out there to help you out. There are people to meet and always learn from. There are people from whom you can seek feedback on what you’re working on very quickly. One’s skill complements another’s.

It’s easy to get excited and say “Hey, I want to make a million dollar business!” but the amount of effort and chaos that goes into getting sales is enormous and it requires a lot of effort to create a sustainable business.

7) Now about your college life. Are you the tech geek or a guru in the campus?

People do ask me suggestions and questions on tech related stuff once in a while, but it’s a University – and there are plenty of others who are equally geeky. I can and I am trying to learn a lot from other tech geeks in campus as well.

8) Do any of your class mates have an online business?

As far as I know, none of my friends has an online business but a few seniors in my college do freelance coding or work on their own pet projects. There’s this guy called Shrihari whose pet project is Kontactr.com. There’s another guy by the name Sanjeev Gopinath who’s made BunkBazaar, a cool mobile app. They’re cool people, and I’m happy they’re working on stuff they love.

9) Do they know about your online ventures and how do they respond?

Yes, some of my friends do know about my blog and they’re happy for it. They do ask me about blogging and how to go about starting a blog. I try my best to help them. I tell them not to blog for money, but to write about what they really love and what their passions are. The money will follow.

10) Given your background, what would you change in our educational system?

It pains me that kids aren’t respected for their talents. We keep saying every kid is unique, but the curriculum treats them as if they’re all the same. I think that should change.

The school system currently seems like it’s preparing children for jobs. It should instead teach them how to find a living based on their passions. If not help them find a living, at least help them find where they’re good at.

A kid who’s good in math should be encouraged to excel in it. At the same time, a kid who’s good at making funny cartoons should also be encouraged to excel in it. That is also a talent.

Today’s schools tell kids to set goals when they don’t even know what their passion is. Only when they find a calling, they can set a confident goal. I wrote about this recently in my blog.

And most importantly: failing is important. Come out to the real world and you’re bound to fail, once or twice or even an umpteen number of times. Schools are teaching that failing is a taboo. Schools should instead tell kids to embrace failure and learn from them, not scare them away.

If I had a magic wand, I’d try to make learning organic, customized to individual kids, where emphasis is put on creativity and not earning potential.

My school’s former principal told us: “Today, children walk to school and run home; They should instead run to school excitedly and walk home”. Schools should be fun.

It could be tough bringing up this change, because it could be logistically challenging, but people are doing it already: SchoolofOne and that’s inspiring.

11) Do you plan to drop out for a garage startup? If an opportunity comes up would you do it?

I might drop out if I think I’m on an idea of a lifetime. Getting my family’s support is going to be toughest part. Also, keeping naysayers away.

12) What do you want to do after college? Would you join infosys or a startup or start one yourself?

That’s three years from now so I can’t be sure. Everyday is a new day and every day I learn something new. It’s better to follow my purpose and collide with destiny later, as Bertice Berry says.

I want to be an entrepreneur or work online full time. I might take up a job with a company – but whatever I do, I want to wake up in the morning excited about what I’ll be doing on that day.

We wish Shankar Ganesh all the very best to wake up excited every morning. Only such kids can take India to the very top.