TQM
Exchange students
Exchange students
The IPL has given young players the opportunity to interact with their elders and betters – both from India and overseas
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan May 20, 2008
VRV Singh is among the many young Indian players who have benefited from sharing a dressing room with overseas cricketers in the IPL © AFP
It was the penultimate over of the Delhi Daredevils’ innings and Punjab’s VRV Singh, as he had done while bowling in the death through the tournament, was trying to get every ball in the blockhole. The first, which ended up a low full-toss, was turned to short fine leg by Virender Sehwag; the second, which Tillakaratne Dilshan tried to pull, was an attempted yorker that turned into a beamer down leg side; and the third, which Dilshan paddled past short fine leg, was another low full-toss.
That was when Mahela Jayawardene, fielding at deep third man, decided to run halfway across the field to have a word with the bowler and captain. As someone who captains Dilshan in the Sri Lankan team, it was obvious Jayawardene saw through his plan. Fine leg was pushed back, three full-ish balls followed, the line was controlled according to how Dilshan moved in the crease, and the remainder of the over produced just three. In a game that was decided by six runs, it was a crucial over.
There are many reasons for Punjab’s ascendancy to second spot in the IPL – balanced side, strong bowling attack, good mix of Indian and foreign talent – but tactics have played a big part.
The international players have imparted their ideas and the local players have chipped in during brainstorming sessions. Australians have helped in analysing Australian opponents, and Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara have been perfect allies for Yuvraj Singh.
Brett Lee, for the two weeks he was available, was a big brother to the fast bowlers. One young Indian bowler talks of the “highly emotional” atmosphere in the dressing room the day Lee left. “We became so close to him that we felt bad when he said goodbye. The amount we learnt from him in such a short time was unbelievable. He used to treat every practice session as if it was his last.”
Sangakkara has missed the last four games but that hasn’t stopped him from making a serious contribution. “Uday Kaul [the young replacement wicketkeeper] had never kept to quality fast bowling before,” says a team member, “but Sangakkara has ensured he gets adequate training.” Even during the early games, Sangakkara made sure Kaul got enough preparation in the nets.
How useful has it been brain-storming with international and local players? “It’s interesting to see how the same questions are approached by people with different perspectives,” Sangakkara told Cricinfo. “Sometimes you get two or three opinions on the same subject – or more. The debate then starts. It’s important how you bring all those into one thought process or one strategy.”
What’s been really challenging for Sangakkara and Jayawardene is coming up with strategies to counter their fellow Sri Lankans – which they haven’t quite managed against the wily Muttiah Muralitharan, who’s foxed them both at crucial moments. Sangakkara thinks there are advantages to planning against your own countrymen.
“You find yourself coming up with new ways to combat these players [like Murali],” he says, “but you then realise there are new dimensions to their game that can be exploited to Sri Lanka’s benefit later. When you analyse someone’s game, you try and find how you can get the better of them, but also find new ways in which they can be lethal. It’s nice to sit back and analyse your own team members – gives you an appreciation and new-found respect.”
If he gets a direct hit, he analyses what went right. If he misses, he analyses what went wrong. It’s the attention to detail that was mind-boggling for us
Aakash Chopra on Ricky Ponting’s approach to fielding in the IPL
The Australian way
Like Punjab, all eight franchises are experiencing the benefits of players interacting with their international peers and elders. The prolific Rohit Sharma has attributed part of his success to Adam Gilchrist. “He told me not to get swayed by the results, as my job is only to keep performing.” Delhi’s young bowlers can’t stop raving about Glenn McGrath, and over in Jaipur, Shane Warne has been inspiring a whole generation.
McGrath’s influence goes beyond his role as a fast bowler: he asked for videos of Pradeep Sangwan’s Ranji Trophy matches to analyse his action and suggest improvements. “McGrath makes it a point to stand at mid-off or mid-on when the youngsters are bowling,” says TA Sekhar, cricket operations chief of GMR Holdings, the owner of the Delhi franchise. “Now that itself is a great inspiration for young bowlers like Yo Mahesh and Sangwan. If they bowl a no-ball, he’s encouraging them, telling them how to deal with the free-hit ball. If they bowl five good balls, he makes sure they don’t get carried away with the sixth.”
Halhadar Das, the Orissa wicketkeeper who plays for the Hyderabad franchise, says he never imagined he would even see Gilchrist, let alone learn from him. Sumit Khatri, Rajasthan’s chinaman bowler, says he needs to pinch himself every time Warne says “Well bowled.” And S Badrinath, who is yet to make the national side despite years of domestic consistency, talks of the lessons learnt from Michael Hussey, who went through a similar phase (“His message was simple,” Badrinath says. “Enjoy whatever you are doing and the rest will follow”)
Ricky Ponting’s dedication to fielding was an eye-opener for everyone in the Kolkata side. “His dedication to fielding is unbelievable,” says Aakash Chopra, the former India opener who’s currently with the Knight Riders. “If he gets a direct hit, he analyses what went right. If he misses, he analyses what went wrong. It’s the attention to detail that was mind-boggling for us.”
Australians have dominated the tournament so far but it’s been their attitude to practice that has really benefited their teams. McGrath is the first to arrive at nets and the last to leave. Ponting ensured that every batting session was planned properly, and while he may not have scored many runs, his approach was inspiration enough. Warne has managed to throw in tactics even while relaxing in a swimming pool in Goa. (“It was great to sit around the pool and talk about how to construct an over,” he said.)
The approach is likely to rub off. “I always wondered how some Australians manage to score despite looking so badly out of form,” says one former India player. “Now I realise it’s because of the amount they practise. They target one area and go on striking the ball there, irrespective of the length. It’s such routines that makes them come out of slumps.”
The likes of McGrath and Lee have taken their duties as mentors seriously, and have also set good examples with their dedication to practice © Getty Images
Local flavour
It’s not all been one-way traffic. In an era of packed international schedules, the IPL has also allowed Indian superstars to interact with domestic players. “I hadn’t seen him earlier but one ball was enough to convince me that he was a talented bowler,” said Sachin Tendulkar of Dhaval Kulkarni, the 19-year-old medium-pacer who is the highest wicket-taker for Mumbai after nine games.
Ross Taylor made it a point to talk to Rahul Dravid and Shivnarine Chanderpaul about batting in England, where he was set to join New Zealand for a Test series; and Cameron White said his most satisfying experience in the IPL was discussing legspin with Anil Kumble.
India’s domestic cricketers, who could never have imagined sharing the same dressing room with legends like Tendulkar have probably benefited the most. “More than anything else, it’s given domestic cricketers a strong belief,” says a former India allrounder who is currently with one of the franchises. “There is a general perception that international cricketers are perfect, but you realise that all of them have weaknesses too. It’s because they work around these weaknesses that they play at the international level. So domestic cricketers will start to believe they can make it too, as long as they are focused and totally dedicated.”
The downside
It hasn’t been all good, though. A few foreign players have treated the tournament like a circus that offers them generous pay packets, and some have shown no restraint when it comes to late nights.
“Most of them are used to drinking late and partying hard but the worrying aspect is that some of the young Indian players are emulating this,” says an Indian player who is part of one of the franchises. “They must know their limits. Just because they see their heroes partying, it doesn’t mean they need to follow that.”
Halfway through the tournament, Bangalore’s think-tank felt the need to read the riot act to the players, listing the kind of discipline that was expected from them. Murmurs have been heard about the Deccan Chargers being distracted about the number of get-togethers and promotional events being organised. Such talk usually accompanies teams that are not doing well but it’s a warning one mustn’t ignore: revolutions have their flip side too.
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is an assistant editor at Cricinfo
In recognition of Excellence
The fourth Shaikh Fatima bint Mubarak Awards for Excellence 2008 were presented at GEMS Wellington International School, Dubai, under the patronage of Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE Minister for Higher Education and Scientific Research. Pictures from the event – Khaleej Times
Boy’s bus death results in Abu Dhabi text alert technology
Boy’s bus death results in Abu Dhabi text alert technology
By Binsal Abdul Kader, Staff Reporter GULF NEWS Last updated: May 19, 2008, 13:29
Abu Dhabi: The case of a young boy found dead on a school bus hours after he should have arrived at school has prompted two software companies to develop systems to put parents’ minds at rest.
One tracks the location of a bus and the other sends text alerts if their child has not arrived at school.
The companies told Gulf News the death of four-year-old Aatish Shabin last month in Abu Dhabi prompted them to develop security systems, the boy had been accidentally locked inside the bus.
The ‘iMessenger,’ software developed by an Abu Dhabi-based company will enable schools to send automatic SMS messages if a child does not show up at school.
The system can send pre-set texts to notify parents of an absence or even to send school notifications, said P. H. Abdul Aziz, manager of Invent Systems & Solutions in Abu Dhabi.
It works by using a simple database, and all school staff need to do is enter the parents’ details into the system. Then if a pupil is marked absent when the register is taken, the software will find the mobile numbers and send an SMS automatically, he added.
Schools can create any number of message templates said Abdul Aziz. He said the system costs about Dh6,000.
The “school bus locator,” a system developed by a Dubai-based company offers to track the location of a school bus, its speed and how it is being driven.
The school administration will have a network connection that will allow parents to log in to the locator’s web-based software via the school’s website, said Basel Al Salah, CEO of Sekurus International.
The parents can just insert the number of the school bus to get all the details, he said.
“In real-time parents will be able to see the location of the vehicle,” he said. “Alternatively, parents can automatically receive an SMS message based on the anticipated arrival of the bus at a pre-determined destination such as home.”
“There are many schools in the UAE which have shown an interest in getting our system for their school buses,” he added. He did not quote the price of his product.
Schools told Gulf News they would consider installing such a system. “I will propose to the management that they install such a system,” said the principal of a prominent Abu Dhabi kindergarten.
Parents are also excited about the new security system. “An SMS alert is better than making calls as parents may be busy at work”, said Mohammad Mustafa Saidalavi, whose daughter is a kindergarten pupil.
Sending an SMS to both the father and mother will give them a secure feeling, he added.
Ministry: Inquiry completed
The Ministry of Education has completed its investigations into the death of a child who was locked inside a school bus for three hours.
The legal department of the ministry completed the investigations after receiving a report from Abu Dhabi Educational Zone (ADEZ), a senior official at the ministry told Gulf News.
“We have sent our conclusions to ADEZ which can take further action,” said the official at the legal department who requested anonymity.
He declined to disclose the conclusion of the investigation.
Emirati entrepreneurs introduce water-saving car wash
Emirati entrepreneurs introduce water-saving car wash By Emmanuelle Landais, Staff Reporter GULF NEWS Published: May 19, 2008, 00:17
Dubai: It might sound unbelievable, but it is indeed possible to wash your car with just five litres of water.
This new water-saving technology, a mobile, low-pressure cleaning unit, will be at motorists’ fingertips within the next few months and was officially unveiled on Sunday at the Franchise Middle East Exhibition in Dubai.
Q2 General Cleaning Services, a new business initiative launched by budding Emirati businessmen promises to leave any vehicle clean and shiny by just spraying a fine mist of water over the bodywork, cleaning and polishing it.
It will not be able to remove any caked on mud or filth but fine dust and dirt will be tackled easily, said Gustavo Ayus, president of Geo Wash, business partner of Q2 and initiator of the device.
“We started using this in Argentina 6 years ago and already it’s present in over 30 countries across Europe and the Americas,” said Ayus.
The system, a small manoeuvrable buggy, is made up of a 60 litre capacity water tank, hose, brushes, a vacuum cleaner and storage for biodegradable detergents.
Around 35 mobile car wash carts will be available across the country. Hotels and malls are being more heavily targeted to provide this service, said Abdullah Al Shahi, general manager of Q2.
“People are worried about time and sometimes cannot get to the carwash. This will save people a lot of time. Especially local ladies who do not go to the car wash, but they go to malls – the service will be there for them,” he said.
“There is a big market here for this service because there are so many cars. New, big cars. We also want to save water. People in the UAE should be aware that they need to be saving water.”
Q2 will offer several packages not yet defined but starting from around Dh20. Car interiors and exteriors can be cleaned. “We hope to have 100 mobile car washes eventually,” said Al Shehi.
The cleaning process will take around 20 minutes and uses only ecological products without chemicals. Once the wash is over the ground is not flooded with excess water, as there is none.
The average amount of water used per car is 5 to 6 litres. “Some people like to have their car washed everyday. There is a lot of dust and sand here,” said Hamad Al Hammadi, deputy general manager of Q2 who himself washes his car 3 times a week.
How the q2 works
– Motorists will find mobile car wash carts in 35 locations initially ranging from hotels, malls, golf courses or supermarkets.
– A fine mist of water is sprayed over the car manually by an attendant.
– The car is cleaned with chemical-free detergents.
– An average of 5 litres of water is used to wash and rinse the car.
– The vacuum cleaner is plugged into the cart so the car can be switched off.
– It only takes 20 minutes to have clean vehicle.
Cool ideas to beat the heat
Cool ideas to beat the heat
Bradley Hope for THE NATIONAL
In recent history, property developers have had a pretty basic strategy for dealing with summer heat which can reach 50°C with 97 per cent humidity – air conditioning.
Buildings have blasted out an arctic-style chill to such a degree that some people need a sweater. But as the city evolves into a year-round destination for tourists and business travellers, and a permanent home for an increasing population, developers have been busy working on a slew of new technologies and techniques to mitigate the climate.
Not only have they been trying to create more energy-efficient indoor cooling systems, but they are also working to reduce the outside temperature as well. It is a far cry from the days when Emiratis just evacuated the city by camel to Al Ain in the summer.
The strategies range from the elementary – canopies, building layout, cool-water misters — to the complex, like mechanical roofs that respond to the temperature, or seawater circulating under pavements.
The latest project to go head-to-head with the heat has been planned for a 1.4 million square metre plot of parched desert near Zayed Sport City Stadium. The developer is Capitala, a partnership involving one of the Government’s local investment arms, Mubadala, and a Singapore developer, CapitaLand. Details of the project are expected to be announced next week during the three-day Cityscape Abu Dhabi conference at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, but the head of Mubadala’s property division, John Thomas, has released a few tantalising early details.
Mr Thomas said the project near the Zayed Sport City Stadium was partially inspired by Clarke Quay in Singapore: once a humid, nearly uninhabitable industrial quarter on the water. CapitaLand transformed Clarke Quay into a trendy shopping and nightlife district while the British firm, Alsop Architects, designed a system of canopies and umbrellas to shade the streets, placing misters and giant fans at different locations to create a cool, artificial breeze.
“It was an eye-opener,” said Mr Thomas. “It’s four or five degrees cooler. They know how to work with a climate similar to ours.”
What is more, if Capitala can make those technologies work in Abu Dhabi, it bodes well for what could become an entire industry devoted to weather mitigation. Developers and architects here could market their designs around the world, and even in nearby GCC countries, which are also undergoing a building boom thanks to an influx of money from high oil prices.
Some of the most dramatic solutions have been devised by the Abu Dhabi development company, Sorouh, and Arup, a UK-based design and architecture firm, on Shams Abu Dhabi. At the centrepiece of the island, which is an 84,500-square-metre green space with amphitheatres and activity areas called Central Park, the developer has planned to circulate seawater underground to cool the pavements and benches and hide misters in nooks and crannies on the exterior of buildings. Everything in the project will be crafted to take advantage of breezes and natural shading. Arup estimates that it can lower the temperature by at least 6°C.
Another firm at the forefront of this innovation is Foster & Partners, which has been designing the new Central Market, a residential development at Al Raha Beach, as well as Masdar, the zero-emissions project.
Gerard Evenden, a senior partner at the company, said that climate control starts with simple things like materials used in construction and the orientation of the building.
“It’s extremely important to consider the relationship of the building to the sun and the wind, and for Abu Dhabi, you have to think about the water supply and the dust,” Mr Evenden said.
For instance, in contrast to the wide avenues and tall buildings in Abu Dhabi, narrower spaces between buildings are shaded for longer periods of the day, which can prevent heat from generating in the walls.
“It’s called solar build-up,” Mr Evenden said, adding that heavy concrete walls should be in the shade because they absorb heat. But if kept cooler “the wall itself will radiate cooling”, he said. The effect can be felt in cathedrals, which are cold in the winter, cool during a summer’s day and warm at night.
At Central Market, Foster & Partners had designed a mechanical roof that can respond to weather and the time of day. In the summer, it can close to retain the air-conditioning, but in cooler months be opened to pull in a breeze.
“It’s about giving people choices in the way space changes throughout the year,” Mr Evenden said.
Building design itself can create a more energy efficient type of cooling. At Auto Mall, a development of three buildings in Dubai’s Business Park MotorCity, Union Properties has been using state-of-the-art architecture to reduce heat.
Adib Moubadder, the company’s director of facilities, said hot air was less likely to penetrate the Auto Mall because its design “reduces the cooling load by creating positive pressure on the whole building”.
Still, developers need to be wary of too many technological solutions, which can reduce the energy efficiency of a building, said Alan Paterson, Aldar’s head of planning. Air conditioning is inherently a wasteful way to cool a space, but cool water misters are not particularly efficient either, especially in a desert environment where water is scarce.
“Supplying the water to allow the misters and under-pavement supply may produce cooling locally but may be unsustainable generally,” he said.
Mr Paterson added that a major driver of smart cooling techniques was the increasing trend among developers, including Aldar, to use environmental standards like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) when making their plans.
“Although LEED covers all issues related to sustainability, this necessarily includes natural cooling and the reduction of energy requirements across the board,” Mr Paterson said. “All options are considered for each of our projects, but this has to be balanced against realistic and cost-effective proposals.”
bhope@thenational.ae
Advantages of multicultural teams
Advantages of multicultural teams
By Carole Spiers, Special to Gulf News Published: April 21, 2008, 23:40
As Dubai becomes steadily more multicultural, it is worth examining, from the London experience, the two differing reactions that may greet a new workplace colleague who has arrived from another place and another culture.
On the one hand there can be the defensive attitude, viewing the new arrival as a problem, whilst the other can be the welcoming attitude, viewing them as an opportunity to become familiar with another culture.
The defensive attitude believes that unfamiliar customs – including language, dress and food – can be in poor taste or lacking in sensitivity. Many ‘cultural diversity’ programmes are aimed at identifying and examining such scepticism and resentment, reducing insensitivity and instructing all staff how to avoid giving unintentional offence. The welcoming attitude appreciates the stimulating effect of new blood and new ideas that come with different perspectives.
Added value
By way of example: if there is an increasing trade between Dubai and (say) Sri Lanka, your team will clearly be strengthened by the inclusion of some Sri Lankan nationals and their different work philosophies and styles of problem-solving will, no doubt, enrich the managerial mix. The new team members would normally prove to be an asset as they would bring added-value to the organisation as well as contributing knowledge regarding the Sri Lankan culture – essential to increasing contact and trade.
If the UK experience is anything to go by, the defensive attitude gradually gives way to the welcoming, in most companies. But the change in attitudes can occasionally be difficult when emotion and prejudice obstruct logical debate. Cultural diversity can, all too often, bring out irrational statements that can lead to serious problems unless handled with care. Adequate training to understand and value the differences is important.
For this reason, central government may have to issue recommendations and directives, with a department dedicated to the issue of multiculturalism. All experience shows that the way to encourage positive attitude of welcoming and acceptance is to demonstrate it in action.
The primary learning comes through repeated impressions drawn from observing communication and interpersonal contact in a multicultural context, in the handling of business – as compared to that in a mono-cultural setting. Ideally, a majority would slowly observe the corporate and commercial benefits taking shape in improved performance, and come to their own conclusions about the advanta-ges of multicultural teams.
The alternative route, which is diversity legislation, may look like a quicker way of enforcing good habits, but it will strengthen resistance among those who are defensive. However, after seeing for themselves the success of the new-style multicultural teams, in their own organisations, they will often be among the converted!
Key points: Diversity
New work colleagues of different culture are often viewed as a problem
In time, the greater strength of multicultural teams begins to appear
Corporate diversity policies are more effective than government directives
– The writer is a BBC broadcaster and motivational speaker, with20 years’ experience as CEO of Carole Spiers Group, an international stress consultancy based in London.
It’s a trophy life
It’s a trophy life
Enid Parker (Staff Reporter)KHALEEJ TIMES
7 April 2008
Pooja Vinod, who has been awarded the prestigious Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for the Distinguished Student in the Basic Education Category, gets candid with City Times
WHAT FIRST caught my eye as I walked into Pooja’s home was the glass-fronted cabinet with dozens of gleaming trophies.
“She has over 40 trophies and 85 certificates to her credit,” smiled her parents. I gulped, a little overwhelmed already as I sat down with this poised young lady who studies at the Our Own English High School in Dubai, and has been awarded the prestigious Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for the Distinguished Student in the Basic Education Category (Grades 1-5) for the year 2007-2008. The award will be presented on April 8.
“The criterion for the award was academic performance, co-curricular activities and overall excellence,” says Pooja.
At this I ask her if she always comes first in class. ‘Yes,’ she answers with a smile. Her mother Praseena, a Mathematics teacher, adds, “Right from Kindergarten she took an active interest in studies. She does her homework by herself; we never had to remind her to study.” Her father, Vinod Kumar, a Telecommunication Engineer, adds, “She’s always been number one in academics.”
Intrigued by a child who’s actually interested in studying, and recalling my own distracted primary school existence, I was curious to find out what her other interests were. “I like singing, dancing, drawing, coin and stamp collecting, travelling, swimming and making projects from waste materials,” she says in her clear voice brimming with confidence, adding that she likes drawing most. “I like doing sceneries and also cartoons, like the ones in colouring books.”
Music
Pooja’s accomplishments in music are noteworthy; she has won prizes in many music contests and has participated in classical music concerts as well. She receives training in classical music and light music from a tutor and says she likes to sing ‘all kinds of songs.’
“She sings everything from classical and light to popular music – in Hindi, English and Malayalam,” adds her mother.
She is a fan of Celine Dion, particularly the popular ‘My Heart Will Go On’ from the soundtrack of the movie Titanic. At the Heart Song competition held at Ski Dubai for the release of the movie ‘Happy Feet’, she won the best singer in the sub-junior category for her rendition of ‘My Heart Will Go On.’ She also performed the song live on Valentine’s Day at the Indian Pavilion at this year’s Global Village.
On the radio
She’s enthusiastic about her radio performances. “I like being on the air, people get to hear my voice… and its fun doing radio advertisements; I have recorded one for Indomi Fried Noodles in Hindi as well as Malayalam.”
A little princess
Pooja played the role of Princess Ariel in The Little Mermaid as part of a cultural programme conducted by her school last year. “It was a musical drama and I had to both act and sing.” I didn’t have to ask her if she liked it, her expression said it all.
Hobbies
So with all this on her plate – so many extra-curricular pursuits and being number one in academics, does she have any time for normal kids’ stuff like games and dolls and toys?
“I like playing with dolls, but now I love kitchen sets more,” she says, and at this point I can’t help talking about my favourite brown ceramic tea set that I had as a child. She laughs and says she has one like it too. She talks about a game called ‘Stuck in The Mud,’ which she loves to play and according to her is ‘very funny.’
And what about books? “Enid Blyton is my favourite author, especially the story ‘The Little Lost Hen.'” I almost begin to reminisce about my own Enid Blyton favourites, then realise with a twinge of regret that its time to leave; I’ve really enjoyed chatting with her.
So does she ever get camera shy or have stage fright? Her smile tells me the answer to that one. “I’m all set for the big day,” concludes this charming and articulate young lady who no doubt leaves a big impression on whoever she meets.
Pooja has won accolades for singing, dancing, public speaking, elocution, story-telling and art. Some of her accomplishments include:
* Sub-junior ‘Kalathilakam’ (overall champion) in the Open Youth Festival 2006-2007 conducted by ADMS
* First prize in the Karaoke Malayalam Film Song competition held at the Indian Consulate in May 2006
* First prize in film song competition at the ADMS UAE Open Youth Festival conducted in January 2008
* Her song was broadcast by Asianet Radio 94.7 fm during the ‘Voice of the Year’ programme
* At the prestigious inter-school KGS music festival, she secured first prize in the group event during the year 2006-2007
A million dollar company built on a failure
A million dollar company built on a failure
Prasanna D Zore | October 23, 2007 | 16:57 IST
He started his first Internet Company, Radio FM, a streaming online radio portal, when he was a mere 17-year-old.
His father was not happy that his teenaged son was wasting most of his time online, rather than preparing for his exams. His stand was vindicated when his son’s maiden venture failed to produce any profits.
But Vishal Sampat, now Ceo of Convonix.com, wasn’t about to give up. He maintained his faith in the Internet, and transformed Radio FM into Khopcha.com which, in turn, became the genesis for Convonix.com, a search engine optimisation company.
Today, Convonix is a one million dollar company and by March 2008, Vishal is confident of doubling his company’s turnover.
As somebody who has gone through the trials and tribulations of starting an Internet business and learning from his failures, here’s what the 25 year old CEO of Convonix?has to tell budding entrepreneurs: “The world will never believe in you till you achieve something. But if you believe in yourself and what you are doing is right and has a future, then you should persevere and work honestly towards your goal. If you do this you will surely be successful one day.”
Can you tell us about your early days in school, college and the time you started your first online streaming radio venture, Radio.com?
I was born and brought up in Mumbai. I studied St Xavier’s?School and completed my SSC in 1997. After that I did my engineering.
I started my first online radio streaming business in 1999-2000. Those were the early days of the Internet in India, when it took half an hour for someone to get connected online. The reason we started this venture was we believed that there was a huge audience abroad who would be interested in Indian music and, for that matter, in knowing?what’s happening back in their own country.
A cousin of mine who was into radio got for me some audio capsules which I could play in between the 20-30 minute programme. We used to have songs as well as the RJ capsules in the middle.
Basically, none of us knew what we were doing and I had no money. So what we did was we got free space from various free web hosting companies that operated at teh time, like Geocities. We managed to get the load balanced with these servers and got our online music channel going.
How much money did you put into in this venture?
I invested Rs 3,000-4,000, with my father footing the Internet bills (laughs), which at that time was very expensive compared to what it is now. He wasn’t very happy about that though (laughs).
Did you make any profit out of this venture?
No, we didn’t. We did succeed in getting?around six and a half million visitors, but it was too expensive to carry out this business online. Of course, being in college and having no sense of economy helped us make no profits (laughs). Finally, this website transitioned into another website named khopcha.com, a portal for teenagers.
Though the portal is still online, we don’t maintain or update it regularly now. It was this experience that helped me start Convonix.com. The first venture, however, still has sentimental values.???????
What inspired you to start this streaming online music portal then?
It was something that just struck us. It was this huge market that was waiting to be tapped. The late 1990s and the early 2000s was an era of the dot com boom and everybody wanted to be online then. This venture was something that we thought we might try and make a lot of money out of, which actually didn’t happen.
What did you learn or gain from this failure?
You can’t call it a failure as such.?It was lot of fun. When Radio FM and khopcha were both online, we did not have money to market the product and services we offered online. This was the genesis of my current venture.
I used search engines to market both the services; I used online portals; I learned about banner exchanges; all kinds of online marketing tools. This experience helped me a lot in offering various products under the Convonix name now.?
Can you explain Convonix’s business model? Who are your competitors globally?
Let me first explain the main business of Convonix, that is, search engine optimisation or SEO.
Suppose you are a bank who wants to sell credit cards. When people search for such services online, they get a list of links on which they click to avail the service. What we do is we consult the banks that want to do business online and get maximum traffic directed to their portal.
SEO helps such institutions to maximise the use of Internet as an active marketing tool to sell their services and products. What we do is we identify who is searching for their products and services, estimate the number of searches, what are the key words they are using for their search and where they are looking out for their requirements.
Convonix helps these businesses to get their portals on top of such a search list. This is SEO and its benefits to the potential customers.
Well, that’s our primary service but we are also into Internet marketing like social media optimisation, which includes crawling the blogs (which are very huge nowadays) to find out who wants what. We are also into paid advertising business.
Our competitors would be ad agencies who are getting into online marketing business. Apart from that there are a couple of big players as our competitors. However, we have the first mover advantage and there is lot of work going around.
Also, SEO is a niche field and it will be very difficult for a traditional ad firm to compete with us and build the core competency needed for this business.
What are the fundamental principles that guide Convonix?
One of our biggest principles is Under Promise and Over Deliver. You will never find one of my guys coming to you promising the world and then failing her/his word.
We’d rather play it conservatively than go over board and fail to deliver. We promise only what we believe can be done, and?then we?do a lot more?than that.
Secondly, we follow a very consultative approach. My team members would first ask you about your business, your goals and then say what we can do about it. Very frankly, we have gone ahead and told many of our customers that a certain thing cannot be done. Of course, we have lost business because of this discipline of ours (laughs).
It really makes no difference if we lose some business because of this, but we don’t want to cheat on our clients.
How would you define your role and responsibilities at Convonix, you being the founder of this company?
My basic responsibility towards my company is to see that it grows as planned and all my employees are happy working with the company. Get talented and skilled people on board, strategising on novel ideas to expand my business. I no more look after the day-to-day operations, which I used to do just a couple of years ago.
How many employees do you have?
We have around 50 employees spread across our two offices in Mumbai. We have just purchased a new 10,000 sq ft office in Navi Mumbai that will help us to triple our headcount.?
What kind of turnover and profit margins are you looking out at in 2008?
Our turnover last year was around a million dollars, and we are looking at double that figure in 2008. Our profit margin is very healthy, as we use a lot of consultative approach, but it is difficult for me to give you a number on that. It could be safely assumed to be 30-40 per cent of our annual turnover on a conservative basis.
80 per cent of our revenues are generated from businesses based out of India. We started the partnership model when we started this business, as it was the best way to get some foot holding in the markets abroad then. We tied up with overseas marketing companies and web solution providers. We handle the sales there and manage all the campaigns from here.
A few of our clients in India are Just Dial, Apnaloan; we have also worked with Indian Hotels, Eitihad Airways and currently we are running a campaign for Sun Pharmaceuticals.
Our clients overseas include the best names in the hotels, airlines and travel portal business. We also do business with ClearWire, which is a listed company on the US stock exchange.
Are you the only owner of this company and do you have any plans of taking Convonix public in the near future?
Yes, I am the sole owner of Convonix. About the other question, we have a strong revenue model and cash is coming internally to fund our expansion plans. In the near future we don’t have any plans of going public. Even the money to fund the 10,000 sq ft facility that we bought came out of internal accruals. What’s more, ours is a debt-free company.
Can you tell us about your interesting journey from an online radio streaming business to a one million dollar company Convonix?
It was indeed an exciting and interesting journey to begin with. Every day we learn something new, and adapt it to improve our businesses. Initially, when I started Radio FM, people didn’t know what I was doing. To add to it I wasn’t making any money from the business. And I was wasting a lot of time online, according to my dad, instead of studying (laughs). That was difficult, but from 2002-2003 when I started explaining to people about my first business the germ of Convonix started taking roots.
It was me and two of my colleagues from school, Pallav Jain and Sarfraz Khimani — the former passed out from IIM-A and the latter will pass out from IIM-C in March 2008. I had pulled these guys midway from their engineering courses, and they were firm on completing their academics. We are still very close friends; we used to work out of my bedroom. That’s when the revenues started flowing, and that’s when my parents started believing in my business. After that everyone started supporting me.
The reason why I am here today is because I got the best team that I could have ever got and great support from my family and friends. ????????????
What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs?
First thing would be, if you believe in yourself and that what you are doing is right and has a future, then you should persevere and work honestly towards your goal. If you do this, you will surely be successful one day. You will get a million people who will laugh it off and discourage you from doing what you are doing, but you have to persevere. The world will never believe in you till you achieve something. That perhaps is the most difficult aspect for the people who are starting on their own.
Think before you swipe credit card for cash
Think before you swipe credit card for cash
Vidyalaxmi, TNN
What’s the worst thing to do with your credit card? Use it to withdraw cash from the ATM, says a financial expert. In your monthly credit card statement, there is a mention of cash limit. That is the extent to which one could withdraw cash using a credit card. But the googly is the interest rates. It’s actually a very expensive proposition to withdraw cash as the interest rates on such withdrawals fall in the range of 40% on an annual basis.
Usually, the credit card company mentions the interest rate as a percentage per month which typically varies from 2.7-2.85% per month. And since this interest is compounded monthly, the effective annual rate of interest tends to be anywhere from 38 to 40% per annum.
Essentially, credit card companies charge the same interest rates for cash withdrawals made through credit cards and for rolling over credit card balances. But if one pays the entire amount on due date, one gets around 30-45 days of interest free credit. But what is important to know is that rule doesn’t apply in case of cash withdrawals; the credit card company levies the interest rate the moment you withdraw the cash.
Cash withdrawals can also attract an additional withdrawal fee. This charge falls in the range of 3-3.5% of the withdrawn amount. That will be added along with the interest rate to your bill. Therefore, unless you have emergency needs, do not withdraw cash on your credit card. The better option though is to go for a personal loan.
Says RL Prasad, general manager and head of cards and personal loans at Standard Chartered Bank, “You should look at this option as the last resort. If it’s a planned expenditure and you don’t have sufficient liquidity then a personal loan is be a viable option.”
Credit card cash withdrawals vs personal loan
Personal loan is a better option as the average interest rate on personal loans is between 15-20% per annum. The only handicap however, is that it takes around 7-10 working days for the banks to process personal loans.
For the uninitiated, every credit card statement has a billing date. For example, if your credit card payment is due on March 15 then the bill would have been dated around February 27.
So if you purchase anything on February 28 or later, that payment would be due only on April 15. So you get some time to cough up that money to pay off the dues. If you are unable to pay the outstanding amount, then the credit card company charges a month rate of 2.95% of the total amount. But this breather doesn’t exist on these cash withdrawals.
ClicksandWrites 
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