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Pictograms or 3D plots? Neither – Just stick to 2D:

In general any visual representation of data is the most efficient form of putting your point across. A picture is worth a thousand words. It is true, not only in the art world but also in the business & academic worlds. Graphs, all sorts of them, stem, box, scatter, histogram, bar, pie & 3D are all used as windows for looking deep into the otherwise shallow looking & less informative pool of data points. Graphs have the power to harness the might of the human neural network to discover new dimensions which otherwise would always be inherent.  This is exactly why one should be really careful while choosing the type of graph in order to paint the ‘best picture’

Many online & offline magazines make use of Pictograms and 3D plots in order to present data to the public. Pictograms and 3D plots though may look very appealing can usually mislead us while interpreting the data. A couple of examples of such cases are shown below.

The above example is a pictogram that aims to show the distribution of advertising budgets across TIME, Newsweek & US News. What is clear is that TIME attracts the largest amount of advertising spending followed by Newsweek & then US News. What is interesting to note is that having a look at the figures quoted in the picture tells you that the  ratio of TIME’s to Newsweek’s share is around 1.6 and that of TIME/US News is around 2.9. This means that TIME should be only about 1.6 times larger than Newsweek and only 2.9 times larger that US News. But according to the pictogram TIME looks definitely more than the above ratios. What is this visual discrepancy?

Well what actually happened is that the picture in the pictogram was magnified and used for the three data points. While magnifying the picture both the height and width have been increased proportionally to avoid distortion. This means that the actual increase in size between the TIME’s figure and Newsweek’s figure is actually 2.56 (1.6*1.6, accounting for both height & width). Similarly the increase in size between Time’s figure and US News figure is 8.4 instead of 2.9.

So, our eyes, which capture the area of the pens rather than only the height, are misled to think that TIME’s share of budgets is way ahead of its competitors while it actually is not

The following is another example of an unnecessary use of 3D plot to present the data.

The aim of this graph is to showcase the drastic increase in the number of Starbucks outlets around the world. If you look at the graph carefully between 1999 & 2003 there is an increase from about 2000 stores to a little more than 6000. This is effectively an increase of about 200%. But the from the graph below it appears that the increase is much bigger than what the actual numbers suggest.

Using a 3D graphs brings in with it another problem, the third dimension. So when a 3D picture is magnified the height, width & breadth are all simultaneously increase to avoid distortion. This is the reason the picture looks much bigger than the 200% increase suggested by the numbers.

So essentially make use of the traditional 2D plots for the best and most accurate representation of your data.

Fast food Joints – Best places to learn about Team Work

Now,  I know that your Doctor/Mom/ and the general 'elite' of the society are usually against the notion that there acutally can be something useful that could be derived from a fast food joint. But trust me on this, there is something that I did find something like that.  Something that I probably would not ever find even after years of searching.  No its not all the yummy looking/smelling but not good for health food but its the bunch of people that work as a team that is holding the joint together.  Fast food joints are the best places on this planet to learn about an important trait that young starters need. - Team Work.

I'm completely convinced that Fast food joints are the best places for the young folk that most throng these joints to take a few lessons on Team Work. This is not a random observation. This is a hypothesis that I proved to be true after years of collecting data of statistical significance . No, seriously jokes apart I've been visiting this fast food joint since a loong time and I've visited at random times, a good combination of early mornings, late mornings, evenings and on both on weekdays and weekends. I can say that even at peak times never was  my order  held for more than 15 minutes, averaging at around 7 minutes in general. Believe me when I say peak time I'm speaking about at least around 10 orders being placed per minute and sometimes each order in bulk, Ex: 10 plates idli, 5 plates Dosa etc., Another observation made was that its always the same 4 people who takes the oders at the counter and then another couple of people inside the kitchen actually executing the order. What is another constant is there is continual chaos at these food joints irrespective of the time of the day. With all these unfavourable parameters one would would think how these folks have been managing to sustain its customers for all these years. The answer is simple ! They work as a team. They have all the qualities that an efficient team should have. I've read a few online resources that talk about the traits of a great team and when I tried to align these traits along with the few observations that I made at these fast food joint folks I actually got a good overlap of these traits.

These are some of the often found traits of members of a 'great' team:

1. Sharing of responsibilities & rotating roles as needed.

2. Showing of support, respect and trust.

3. Great  understanding, immaculate communication and collaboration

4. Having a unified goal oriented approach in their actions/work.

Another very inspiring story is that of the mumbai 'Dabbawallahs' whose business model was studied by big business schools around the world. You can find more information on them here:

http://www.mydabbawala.com/

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SMX in India

SMX, one of the more popular and niche search marketing conferences in the world in coming to India. According to their website it is scheduled for November 2009. This is great news for the fledgling SEM industry in our country. This is a chance for folks in the SEM & SEO domain to talk, listen and network with some of the best brains in the industry. The SMX India site is not up yet but bookmark this space: http://www.searchmarketingexpo.co.in/

They also seem to have set up a twitter account here: http://twitter.com/smxindia

I'll try to update this space regularly regarding this event.

Time to get excited?

A fresh start !

A new start with a new website ! I did move all of the content from my old blog:

biztrivia.wordpress.com/

to this new place.
http://www.biztrivia.org/blog/

I will be more regular in updating this space and hopefully will meet and make many good friends

I've got PR !

Almost three months of no blogging for various reasons has turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me and this blog. I finally have a Page Rank. Thats right folks my blog actually has a PR of 2. Thats more than what some of the 'better' sites would die for. This also turned out to be a source of inspiration for me to start blogging again, so much so that , Iam writing this post as soon as I discovered the miracle. I know all the hoopla about 'Google Dance' and all the elements of uncertainty that surrounds the consistency of sustaining an actual Page Rank for a significant time. But then, Iam going to relish this momentary state of bliss. Bless my Soul !

Race to $100 Billion!

With cross broder acquisitions becoming a norm and with domestic mergers on the foray the race is on to reach the magic figure of $ 100 billion for most of the Indian companies. But India's biggest and most trusted company Reliance Industries stands at No.1 position with a total market value of $ 43 billion sharing the position with India's public sector energy gaint ONGC. Bharti Airtel which is India's No.1 telecom company takes the third spot with a market capitalisation of $ 32 billion. All these companies have still a long way to go to reach the magic figure.

So are we giving way too much attention to this topic than it requires? Maybe or maynot. But what is true is that India's Economy has never been better and the good news is that the party has just begun. The Indian stock market has been performing extremely well and has shown signs of standing pretty tall in difficult times which is always good in the long term. What is more encouraging are the projections that some of the top financial analysts have furnished. Even the most cautious ones are quite confident that the sensex can easily soar over 40,000 mark in comfortable time. Morgan Stanley said that the sensex will cross the 50000 barrier in about 10 years from now, which sounds unbeliavable , atleast this point in time. Earning a global footprint through foreign acquisitions and domestic mergers which would eventually unlock greater value through its operations are other strong reasons for us to be optimistic. Finally other businesses that are huge and have not been listed ,like the Retail sector, when listed will only help in realising the $ 100 billlion dream faster. What is defnitely true and maybe more important than anything else for the members of India Inc., to focus on is the fact that there will be tough competition and the the only way to reach the top spot is to sustain this competition. After all its the Survival of the Fittest !

Zapped!!!

Question : What do you think the Fastest Retail Website for American Consumers is ?

I would'nt be surprised if your answer is Amazon. But you are worng. The correct answer is Zappos.com. The emergence of Zappos from a tiny shoe retail store to one of America's largest online business has been one of the most startling sucess stories for online businesses. The site, which was founded in 1999 had just $1.6 million in gross sales in 2000. This has risen to $600 million in revenue in 2006.

Zappos is derived from the word Zapatos which means shoes in spanish. Apart from shoes Zappos very recently started off with selling ladies and gents handbags. A part of its revenue model also includes in running ad campaingns in the form of banners on different sites and an affiliate program where webmasters get paid for refering customers to zappos. With about 4 milllion customers the company had about 1% of the Total american population buy something from them.

Being a Web retailer only means that IT plays a huge role. Part of the reason for their business success has been because they have managed to use power of IT in a smart and efficient manner. They follow a policy which states that IT should prove useful to the business and not to the developers.

Zappos doesnt manufacture shoes but does develop its own software.The compnay has a small team of developers and has built the majority of the tools using open source software like PERL, MySQL, Linux and Apache. This includes the website , Warehouse management system , Customer service tools etc. Zappos proves to be another example of how business can succeed by employing the open source movement.

It will be interesting to keep a watch on the strategies that Zappos will employ in the coming years to reach greater heights. All the Best !

Indian Multinationals !

I know its a bit late to post this topic, but better late than never. 2006 has been a year that projected the strenght of the Indian Economy onto the Global map. The outcome has been responsible for coining of the term 'The Indian Multinationals'. The Indian companies have been more aggressive than ever in merging or acquiring companies worldwide. Some have been quite and smooth while some had to indulge in a bloody fight with competitors. I have listed some of the top catches by top companies

Tata's acquisition of Corus Steel now makes it the fifth biggest Steel maker in the world. The Biz critics initially wrote the deal off as stupidity but when you have somebody like Ratan Tata on your side can you loose a battle ?? The man has the 'midas touch'. The Tatas offered a 500 pence per Corus share, thus valuing Corus at $9.2 billion. This after the acquisition of Uk based Tea company 'Tetly' and US based 'Good Earth' has given the TATA group the long awaited international exposure.

With the Thomson acquisition Videocon has emerged as one of the largest Colour Picture tube manufacturers in the world. It also has recently acquired Electrolux Kelvinator Ltd (EKL) the loss making Indian Arm of Swedish major AB Electrolux. All this was after they managed to strike a deal with the Korean debt-burdened Daewoo Electronics for $700 million (Rs 3,150 crore)

Next in the list would be the public sector gaint ONGC Ltd. It made news when it stated that it had acquired Texas-based Exxon Mobil's stake in the Campos Basin Oil Fields in Brazil. It had acquired the full 30% stake valued at $1.5 billion. The other big buyout was along with the China's Sinopec when it offered a $850 million to the columbian oil firm Omimex for a 50% stake.

Suzlon Energy Ltd was in news when it acquired a 100% stake in Belgium-based EVE Holding NV for Euro 465 million. With this Suzlon got hold of a neat footprint in the United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, United States and South Africa.

The others in the news were acquisitions like Ranbaxy-Terapia, Vijay Mallya's UB-Whyte & Mackay, Wipro-Quantech Global, Reliance/Vodafone-Hutch Essar deals that made the biz headlines.

What would be interesting is to see the strategy of the Indian companies in the coming year. Would the party continue in 2007? or will it be different.

Wait n watch !!