Many of you may have recently seen a tweet from New York Times asking its  followers:

“Would you pay to read online version of NY times?”

NYtimes, WSJ make  a lot of money through their online version, but so far the online revenue is too small to begin to compensate for the losses from print advertising.(NYT online revenue is 12% of their revenue , ~100million$ )

Very obvious reason for such a scenario is that not many want to pay for their newspaper. Let it be physical or virtual.I have not read a physical copy of NY Times or WSJ. But my experience with traditional newspaper is that the content is too generic. Even connoisseurs of news would not read up more than 50% of the content in it. News can be more targeted and the content generated can be better utilized.

So here are some suggestions, which can improve users experience.

Why not have a personalized version of newspaper?

Some version of the same e-paper can have more tech news, or more entertainment and sports news or even more news about latest cars. Basically users might need customization in what they read, if they are going to pay.

Imagine yourself reading a local newspaper with news about the latest mobile startup that has propped up in Uganda or a review on Tesla.

• The advantage of a personalized e-paper is targeted advertising. You can understand what users want and improve your advertising revenues.

• How about best YouTube videos of the day ? or newer/older videos from YouTube that is related to the content.

• None of the traditional newspapers allow users to post content. There might be problems with copyrights, but   that can be sorted out if the users experience is going to improve.

Basically, the image of a ‘newspaper’ has to change when it comes online. I do not want a  NY times or a WSJ newspaper. I want a personalized newspaper that can cater to my likes and dislikes.’MY’ newspaper!

PS: I posted this article here sometime back  trak.in. Look for some interesting comments

There are so many articles surrounding the advantages of National UID system in India. Here are some of the advantages I see going forward.

1. Increased efficiency in public spending
2. To control corruption at Govt offices
3. More transparent and efficient voting system
4. Better Tax payments (long way to go ,though.)

I assume the biometric card will contain information like digital fingerprints, iris scan or other easily scanned biometric features. Putting all this critical information in one central database could be a sitting duck for terrorists and other criminals.

We all know that the price we pay for using debit cards and ATM’s is an increase in the abuse of these convenient systems by criminals. If identification starts to rely on one major system, the information that is compromised will be much greater than with the more diversified systems that are in place.

Needless to tell that if the same card is used for business transactions it will lead to aggregation of private databases that can easily be cross-referenced with each other.When UK government wanted to build a National ID card for their country 3 years back, one of Microsoft’s chief technologist warned them about identity theft and frauds.

“Fishenden, national technology officer at Microsoft UK, said that the plans for a central national identity register could lead to “huge potential breaches” and a leakage of personal information.”

“I have concerns with the current architecture and the way it looks at aggregating so much personal information and biometrics in a single place,” he said

Ironically the same Microsoft seems to be interested in the project in india…Hmm Interesting!!

But like every one of you, I am also looking forward for a day the single ID would revolutionize our lives. Even before National ID initiative was made public, Mr. Nilekani had covered it in plenty in his book ‘Imagining India’. So we can trust that necessary thoughts and discussion has been done beforehand.

“But building these intelligent little stripes is the easy part. It is in making the back-end infrastructure secure and scalable, providing a single record keeper for the whole country and integrating the agents who issue these numbers that it gets tough. An IT-enabled, accessible national ID system would be nothing less than revolutionary in how we distribute state benefits and welfare handouts; I believe it would transform our politics.” – Nandan Nilkeani, Imagining India

I thought of a small idea that could improve fund raising and involve more volunteers and have posted it here in detail

Technology has played a significant role in myriad of industries and its no wonder it is playing and will play a huge role in volunteer services. Statistics has shown that technology has improved volunteering activities to significant proportions in US (link). With almost 100% internet penetration in Singapore, it is possible to tap the skills of the volunteers through simple to use online technologies.

A teacher can impart language classes through skype. An accomplished academician can mentor students at volunteer homes online. People across the globe can be facilitated to share their skills across continents. Online-volunteering is not about connecting computers , hardware and software. Its about connecting people and the ideas.

I would agree that nothing totally replaces volunteering on-site – expressing solidarity by donating time and skills and “showing up” face-to-face. But On-line volunteering has an enormous potential to supplement, extend and maximize the engagement of on-site volunteers and NGOs.

Here is the best use of technology - internet can be used to appreciate and recognize volunteers applauding their efforts which could encourage a few more people to involve in volunteering. Statistics in the past have shown that most people volunteer to get appreciation from their close acquaintances.

This is where I firmly believe technology plays a pivotal role. With no cost we could identify something like the “star” volunteer of the month or week and broadcast about them via Twitter , Facebook and other social medias. This would bring in a certain amount of recognition to the “star” and encourage a few more people to volunteer.

With social media tools like twitter and facebook growing to gargantuan proportions, it’s inevitable that we need to make use of them for both fund raising and volunteer involvement. Recently Facebook has come up with an application called as “Causes” where non-profits can create a fund-raising campaign and involve people in the local geography much more easily. So far many NPO’s have benefited with this application and it would be on the top of my to-do list.

The strategies mentioned here have been adapted and executed well by NPO’s across the world eg:Movember, firstgiving .Twitter is a social medium with a tremendous amount of connection and relationship. With a personal touch imbibed in it , twitter is a powerful tool to connect with interested volunteers and donors.

img src: here

Following is a small suggestion which any NGO could implement to inculcate the habit of ‘giving’ in its society.

Instant Gratification is the “hep” word of this decade.The need to want something right now, instead of waiting and seeing the benefits of either hard work or simply letting life run its course. Instant coffee,Instant noodles,diet pills,facebook,twitter are examples that has been appreciated and adapted.

Let’s not get in to the discussion of whether such a mentality is good for the society or not. .The purpose of this idea is to make sure that we give the volunteers instant gratification when they involve in any volunteering activity or contribute financially to it. So I came up with this campaign named “Pay a Dollar and become part of History” (hehe couldn’t think of any other rhyming word!!). OK.So what does a user do ? people need to pay only one dollar either online or through offline methods and they can get their names inscribed in a WALL that will be permanently mounted at the NGO office.

So what does the user get?

• Instant gratification.As soon as you pay your name goes to the wall.
• The feel to recommend this to his/her acquaintances.
  • what does NGO’s get?
    • More volunteers involving with your NGO
    • More funds

  Post your thoughts below about this campaign!!

  img src:here

Sometimes simple things can make big positive impact on your business and change the future of your business 360 degrees !

I am going to share some instances of how simple things employed by small shops in various parts of India were very effective in attracting customers, improving revenues and cutting costs.

Here are couple of real-life examples that will probably get my point across:

Scene1:

I did my schooling and undergrad in Chennai. For most part of my life I lived in a place called Saidapet which is one of the biggest residential areas in Chennai  for middleclass and lower middle class people.I stayed just opposite to  the railway station and there were two streets on either side of my house leading to the residential areas.Both these streets had similar shops like a PCO, Xerox, Ice cream parlour, Peanut vendors etc.

I will cut out directly in to business part without further explanation. I noticed that a peanut vendor on one of the streets (shop A) made more money and attracted more customers than the peanut vendor (shop B) on the parallel street.

This was quite confusing, since the amount of population moving in to both the streets are approximately same and their spending capacity also seems to be similar. Being inquisitive, I spent a couple of hours watching  these shops on a weekend. Better than I expected ’shop A’ seems to be having 7-8 times the customers what ’shop B’ was having.

It took me a while to find out the reason , but then it was actually quite simple and evident. ’shop A’ had a big oval 1000W neon bulb hanging at the front of his shop (I am not sure of the watts:). In the evening, kids, teens and people coming out of the railway station got psychologically attracted to the shop and  bought peanuts for 1-2 re. But the better part was people going in cycles and bikes also noticed this shop and stopped for a minute to get their favourite nuts.

This reason cannot be verified but I am sure that a very brightly lit front end was raking in good profits for the ’shop A’ peanut vendor.

Scene2:

Once the Punjabi dhabas  in western India situated on the highway side, faced some serious problems when the number of customers increased during the start of the month. The problem was it was very difficult to make  “lassi” for more than half a dozen people at once.

Most customers to these dhaba wanted to finish their meal only with a lassi. So these dhabbas spoke to some industry people and asked for a special lassi machine that can make lassi for 50 people at once.

The machine was designed and it was supposed to cost around 50K since only dhabas wanted it and no one else. One of the  shrewd Sardars came up with a  stunning idea. It was simple & effective ! He asked,

Why don’t we buy second hand washing machines and use them to mix & make lassi?

The cost was less than 5k and today lot of dhabas on the highway belt use washing machines to mix and make their lassi.

[I do not remember the source of the above instance (my apologies), but u can see a related video here].

Here is a question to readers – Have you spent time on thinking about some basic simple things you can implement which have power to positively turnaround your business? Would love to hear that in the comments

PS: I posted this article at trak.in sometime back . Look for some interesting comments