Ecofinglobe.com and its statistics from an year ago

I was chancing to look upon my blog’s readership and it has skyrocketed in last few months. To give you an idea of how much the readership for http://www.ecofin.wordpress.com has gone up by, Alexa rating has shown a consistent rise in my webpage ranking (it currently stands at 755139 worldwide and its India ranking is better at 58137. Furthermore, my year old blog stats shows my blog to have averaged 9999 hits way in May 2007. The current count stands at 77791.

Above means nothing if people don’t read posts. Simple page views/hits serve no value absolutely. The most important indicator that indicates the health status of a blog is its post:comment ratio. My blog’s average post:comment ratio is at about 1:2. This means, for every post I put up, I get double the # of comments. This ratio was about 2:1 last year at about the same time and it had not even reached breakeven. So, it is a satisfaction that my blog is a success in terms of these critical metrics.

Thank you, all for making this blog readable! Its only my readers who can turnaround this blog and I hope to keep you as repeat readers so the value of this blog is enhanced further!

Keep visiting back - you know where to look for me: http://www.ecofinglobe.com!

Book review — Harvard business review — Finding and keeping the best people

Makes sense for me to read this since this is something I need to do at work day in and day out.

Will post a detailed review once done.

Some macro economic predictions for 2008

Here’s a caveat: I fully understand economic predictions are foolhardy and its a bunch of crap since it is not something that can be predicted. Famous investors such as billionnaire Warren Buffett etc. also share the same viewpoints about economic predictions not being practical due to the changing dynamics of economies worldwide!

I still choose to defy this and some of my predictions for 2008 are as follows. Do not worry - I will not try to state the obvious and this is a result of some tad bit of analytical analysis thrown in for it to have some meaning.

Blogging guidelines - my two cents

What are the important factors one needs to consider before one begins to blog:

1. First, get over this obsession of Google adsense. 99/100 bloggers I meet first think of making a quick buck on adsense rather than focus on quality of their blogs and its relevance towards the topic(s) chosen! This is really very disturbing statistics.

Direct from DELL

Courtesy of Dell Inc.

http://www.amazon.com/Direct-Dell-Chairman-Executive-Corporation/dp/0887309143 

I am currently reading up on the book - Direct from DELL written by none other than the legendary founder of DELL Computer Corporation (NASD: DELL).

Rising rupee / Foreign exchange exposure of Indian IT companies due to appreciation

Cross posted in http://www.acc101.com

In the last few weeks, we have been hearing of the top Indian IT service export companies declaring their Q1 results (remember the Indian financial year is from Apr 1st - Mar 31st) and almost all of them without doubt have been hit by a rising rupee. I have written an earlier post on the same topic and it made for interesting analysis back then - http://ecofin.wordpress.com/2007/05/10/currency-markets-is-the-indian-rupee-really-appreciating/

I read in the papers today about some steps taken by some of these IT majors such as asking employees to work on Saturdays to compensate for their exposure to the rupee appreciation! I am not so concerned about the fact that they are asking their people to work on Saturdays but I am concerned about the fact that they are trying to relate two different events (from an employee perspective in an employee driven organization) to justify their need to make employees work on Saturdays to cover for their risk exposure to the outside forex market. Is this justified - is what I am trying to analyze.

India Post - the road to recovery

Image source: http://www.indiapost.gov.in/

India Post is a jewel in the crown of the Government office provided it can be managed well and steered in the right direction.

Captive centres in India

There has been a significant trend in establishing cost centers and profit centers http://www.answers.com/topic/profit-center offshore in recent years.

Let us examine the business model of such centers and why so many companies are exploring this.

IT services versus IT products - which is better

If you ask for my honest opinion, this is like comparing apples with oranges!

Let me elaborate by going into the grassroots of the IT service sector before striking the analogies/differences between an IT service and an IT product business.

Importance of communication skills

We see this happen all around us but we turn a blind eye to it - either due to our constraints or due to our necessities or both.

Email communication is possibly one of the wonders of the world - in my opinion. The truth comes out and its hard to lie on the written medium. We can get away by saying things but when we put it down in words, it stays put. During my stay at TCS, someone had remarked that emails sent out with official company domain name would be treated as legal and valid.

People need to improve communication skills. If you cannot convey what you think, its hard for the other person to understand what you are trying to convey. Interpersonal skills are equally important and sufficient trainings are not being conducted by organizations esp. in India to stem this problem.

Technical manpower can be got albeit at a compromise when it comes to their communication skills. Attitude of the same people can again not be changed once they are on the rolls and hence it is critical we think beyond the traditional technical capabilities of individuals.

As demand for quality manpower goes up esp. in a IT service boom industry such as India, it will become imperative to screen for candidates with good communication skills. Managers need to sensitize themselves on this aspect and act accordingly. Most candidates don’t even make the effort at improving their communication skills - this is going to lead to big problems in the future.

Caveat Emptor - companies beware!