Google Glass – The Future of Mobility

Google Glass has opened up a world of infinite possibilities. With a Google Glass you can do the things by just saying a few words, like  take a picture, record a video, share what you see, get directions, send a message, translate a voice or post whatever is on your mind. The best part of using the strong, light and modularly designed Glass is that you can achieve all of the above tasks hands-free!

Popular apps on Google Glass include Strava, which helps you track your rides and visualize your progress. Word Lens which lets you translate printed words from one language to another, in real time. GolfSight which gives you accurate pin distance, course data, and scoring information and Soundscape which is a great app for budding music artists.

Notable Glass apps such as Pristine Eyesight, from Pristine in Austin is a boon for surgeons to stream videos to remote experts, who might be in a different room or even across the world. This way, doctors or nurses can quickly consults with their peers. Pro Populi has come out with an innovative People+ application that enables you to follow companies or people on the go. When you are about to walk up to someone you haven’t seen in a while or don’t know too well, People+ will allow you to quickly review a profile right from your Google Glass.

The Fancy is the first company that has been able to make money on Google Glass by allowing users to snap a picture of objects that they see in the real world and then find them a matching or complementary item with a similar style or color that they can buy online. With the aid of the Fancy app on Glass, people have been able to purchase everything from clothes to jewelry and toys to kitchen articles.

Timothy Jordan, a developer advocate with the Glass team believes that app developers for Google Glass should go by the philosophy “the world is the experience”.  Instead of building an app that competes with the world, the app should give Glass users the ability to find value in the world around them. For developers that are keen on creating Glass apps, Google has advised the following:

• To use rich imagery instead of text when possible
• To keep information concise and easily reviewable
• To limit timeline items
• To follow the required media format requirements

- See more at: http://blog.flatworldsolutions.com/google-glass-the-future-of-mobility/#more-454

MENA Franchising Facts:

The Middle East has a total population of approximately 350 million, 50 percent of whom are under 25. Indian population in Middle East: Saudi Arabia 1,400,000, United Arab Emirates 1,200,000, Kuwait 500,000, Oman 350,000, Qatar 175,000, Bahrain 140,000, Yemen 100,000, Jordan 4,100 approximate figures

The GCC markets has over 450,000 high net-worth individuals, each with liquid assets of more than $510 million to invest in new businesses. That means that more than 15% of the population are High worth and together have available invest of more than US$2 trillion

Early Indications predict that the annual growth of MENA franchising sector will again be seen around 25 per cent in 2012, back to the levels of 2008

In the Dubai , fast food and retail segments particularly fashion accounts for over 60% of the total market and about 90% of the franchise Brands are of American Origin or French origin. More recently Asian brands particularly from Malaysia and India have been making Inroads in GCC



Dubai remains the preferred base for franchised operations in the region, given its tax status, the comparative stability of its legal and regulatory systems and it openness to foreign investment, though Most countries in the GCC region do not have franchise- specific legislation

The franchisee market is dominated by a small number of players who take multiple Brands franchise known as Franchise Conglomerates ,with some having as many as 50-55 brands in their portfolio.

The total population of the MENA  is 315 Millions. The region's population growth rate is 3%-5% per year, which is one of the highest regional rates in the world .

The SMEs and franchise sectors are one of the fastest growing economic sectors

Many India Education companies have started the franchise operations in MENA in the past decade but very few of them are still operating.

UAE's franchise business is worth over AED 1.1 billion,

International companies are showing keen interest in Dubai and, with the US economy being stagnated, the local market is grabbing the opportunities.

Fast food accounts for 40 per cent of the total market, other sectors are also growing rapidly. Industry estimates put the annual growth of this sector at 27 per cent,

Financial Proposal for franchisee..

Detailed Financials are the most important for a prospective in the funnel to decide whether he takes up the franchisee or not. so here are a few details that have to included while preparing a financial feasibility study to be presented to the prospective franchise partner.

The investor should be convinced looking at the study. Report has to be attractive and detailed yet it has to be easy to understand even to first time investor.
The Franchise Financial Projections Model should include Some of the features and capabilities are as follows:

FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS MODULE:

• Startup Capital Expenditures including working capital for 1 year.
• Revenue projections.
• Operational Expense
• Profit & Loss Statements.
• Cash Flow Statement.
• Balance Sheet.
• Breakeven Analysis.
• ROI and Payback Analysis.
• Graphs and Charts.

This is what they want to see in the report.

Franchising in 2010?

In the last decade of growth around the world a few companies failed and many prospered but 2009 was an exception. At the verge of the second great depression, many companies failed. Around the world franchising is also nor spared in fact the RECESSION as brought in sense of urgency in the franchisers. Companies with dwindling royalty have resorted to SIN, selling franchisee to bring in the revenue in the form of franchise fee.

This according to the industry experts is a very short term benefit which can lead to the collapse of the company as a whole as the brand would take a beating to the blue.

Many companies experienced hard times with lead generation for franchise sales, difficulties with franchisee relations, tougher supplier negotiations, and negative consumer sales. Franchise companies were hit from all sides, in 2009.

So what do they have in store in 2010?

The franchisees in 2009 have suffered and many closed down by early 2010 and some on the verge of closure.

A top Franchise company said "We no longer have the luxury to sell franchises or support franchisees as we have in the past. 2009 proved above all that the old ways do not work anymore".

The top three thoughts i think will change franchising in 2010:

1.New franchisees will enter the market through transfers of ownership.

The legacy and older franchisees with no generation behind them will split up their units (if they have a high multiple) and sell to newer franchisees. Traditionally, the focus has been “the new franchise sale”. This is always a good strategy. However, the resale is basically ignored by most of the companies. Companies close down the franchisee or take over the franchisee and sell it after that. In many companies, the team handling transfers of ownership is not part of the franchise sales team and not trained extensively to handle these types of transactions. In order to sign the best franchisees, franchise companies must be not only ready for this, but proactive about it. The franchise companies will concentrate more on the resale in 2010 to consolidate there stand in the market after the recession.

2. A higher level of education will be demanded (and needed for future success).

It will not just be about what support the franchise offers now. Indian franchise companies have been focusing on the support and not on educating the franchisee.The franchisees that stay in the system are going to push companies to revamp their training and support. The new franchisees want this as well. Both types of franchisees are more technology savvy than ever before, and will be more abreast of the latest developments and how to e-communicate to other franchisees. They will demand more business training. The franchisees want to be more equipped to milk the market after the recession. Franchisees suffered losses in the last year and want to make it up or they have other go but to come out of the business.

3. The marketing jobs will be back—in a new way.

It has always been a chicken and egg story regarding Marketing by the franchisees. on top of it during recession when the revenue dropped drastically there was a huge curb on the marketing expense which accounts to more than 20% of the expense incurred by a franchise company or franchisee. Companies in 2010 will need to focus on increased marketing activities and new areas of marketing. More experience (and I mean real experience) in social media will be needed to grow in this year.

Actually, 2010 is shaping up to be a great year. We may truly be back to the focus being about operations , and not just selling franchises. Franchise companies should focus on present franchisees now as if they are able to sustain and grow in this year after recession they will be loyal to the company and help you grow as a company.

Beware...

Deadly PC virus to strike on April 1. According to a security expert an Internet worm, called Conficker C, can strike at infected computers around the world on April 1.It is dubbed as the April fool's day worm can be nasty.

What is Conficker?
Conficker , also known as Downadup or Kido, is the latest super virus to spread around the Internet and has security experts in a panic. When last we checked, about a week ago, Conficker had already spread to 9 million PCs, with little sign of slowing. Now it has infected at least 10 million PCs and experts believe there may be up to 350 million vulnerable computers out there.

The worm isn't just exploiting a networking hole, however; it features a sophisticated method of cracking administrator passwords, making it difficult to remove, and also copies itself to USB drives so that it can spread even when the online flaw is plugged.

Conficker is a complicated malware programme which might be already their in your PC.

This would hunt for new instructions on April 1. So no one knows exactly what will happen. The spread of the program is alarming, it is present in over 20 million PC's all over the globe. April 1 being the start of a new fiscal year is a perfect day to attack. This attack can be millions of spam emails to total crashing of the systems.

Cross your fingers and just hope nothing happens to your system.

Deflation or Disinflation

Deflation is inflation below zero for a prolonged time. But how prolonged? Japan had inflation below zero for a decade so it is said to have deflation. In the indian context it is expected that the Q1 of 2010 would see zero inflation. Inflation is expected to rise after the quarter. This is just disinflation not deflation.

Is this good or bad? Inflation is Going to be below Zero for the first time in the history of Indian economy. In this time of slow down it should boost the demand, but as the key rates are well above the inflation figures the demand creation is abig doubt. with the essential commodity index still showing over 7% I doubt if the common man see the difference.

The good news is that with RBI set to reduce the ratees further by 50 or 100bps the demand might pick up. The domestic demand in India is enough to get the economy back on track.

Marketers around the globe are trying hard to sell, with the demand picking up marketers will be able to achieve the targets.

Good,Bad and Ugly

The forecasts for the year 2009 given by three prominent economists of the country can be categorized as :

1.Good - Arvind Virmani, chief economic advisor of the government;
2.Bad- Raghuram Rajan, economic advisor to the prime minister;
3.Ugly- Rajiv Kumar, head of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER).

According to Mr. Viramani the forecast is a strong 8.5% growth in the fiscal year 2009-10, this is based on the analysis done by him which says that Indian with a strong saving of 36% will allow it to substantially ward off the crisis. Normally the growth rate would be a quarter of the saving so it should be 9% theoretically but because of the global influences it is expected to be around 8% which is a very good number at the present situation we are in.He also says that as india is not a export oriented country the deficit will be less as we import many raw materials to produce the products to be exported so the exports and imports both will decline at same level.

According to Mr. Raghuram Rajan, the GDP growth for the year 2009-10 will be about 5-7%, this is a huge range and the probability of this coming true is also high. The higher level will be attained if the global economic situation improves and the lower range is when the situation worsens further. This is bad but not ugly.

According to Mr.Rajiv Kumar, the results of the ICRIER model that he developed which has given accurate predictions of the 2007 GDP growth of 9% and the first model to indicate the slow down has predicted a staggeringly low GDP growth of just 3.9 % for the fiscal year 2009-10. Ugly right. This models takes into account 10 leading indicators including GDP growth in the US and Europe, factoring in the global slowdown.

If a probabilty has to given to the above predictions :

1. good - 10%
2. bad - 60%
2. ugly - 30%

This a biased prediction as would want the economy to be good or bad not ugly at any circumstances.

Where is the tiger?

India is losing the war on " Tiger protection", according to the latest data using advanced technology and calculations tiger population in India is only 1411. According to minister of state for environment and forest the status of population of tigers is very poor. Going at the present trend tigers will be extent in another 10-15 years from India. What a shame if we cannot protect the national animal.

People say tiger is the real king of the forest but has the king lost the charm? No, its the humans greed every where thats taking the toll on the environment and the economy.



Even after PM taking drastic initiatives the population of tigers is reducing at an alarming rate, get ready to see the tiger in the zoo in future thats where all the animals will be in the future.

Economic recovery patterns

The present economic crisis has left the best of the economists searching for the bottom.

How will the bottom be?

The recovery is expected to be in any of the three ways:

1. U-recovery
2. V-recovery
3. L-recovery

U-recovery: The most probably the recovery from the present crisis would be a u one. There is a 60% chance of the recovery being this type and the bottom is expected to last for at least an year so the stability can be expected to come only in the year 2010.

V-recovery: This is the next probable recovery type. In this there would a drastic recovery happening once it touches the bottom. The probability of this type of recovery is only 30%, though it is the most desired. This type of recovery means that in mid 2009 we can see our economies back to normalcy.

L-recovery: This is the most hated type of recovery with the bottom lasting for a long time may be even a decade and then a recovery. The probability is only 10% Thank GOD.

What ever be the type of recovery the economy will bounce back. "What goes down has to come up"

Fed rate to be Zero

US fed is thinking of reducing the fed rate to zero tomorrow. With the present fed rate at 1.o% a 50bps reduction would mean that the rate would as low as .50% the least since july 1954.

This with some unconventional means to pump much needed liquidity into the market is expected by the fed.

But the question remains will this change the tide? will zero interest rate of the fed funds bring America and rest of the world out of the recession? According to me the recession is more than the liquidity crisis.

The Madoff scam, the bailout rejection to the auto majors will bring the impact of the rate cut down.

The investor confidence is critically low, the recovery looks to be way far for now.

Hope is what remains, hope for the best crossing our fingers.

Nokia suspense mobile...

Nokia the worlds largest mobile phone maker will be unveiling its new phone at the Nokia World media and industry conference in Barcelona.

Nokia is using suspense as a tool to create the buzz around the product. The virus has started to spread with many people searching the net for the new phone, but their are no photographs or any other product specific news on the net. All they could find is the timer on the nokia website.

Nokia is using suspense to its advantage.

The product that was launched is the " true iphone killer " Nokia N-97.

The device combines a large 3.5in touch-screen, similar to that found on the Apple iPhone, with a slide-out Qwerty keyboard reminiscent of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 and the T-Mobile G1.

it has a five-megapixel camera, and a huge 48GB of memory, capable of storing thousands more songs than the Apple iPhone and many other leading devices.

"From the desktop to the laptop and now to your pocket, the Nokia N97 is the most powerful, multi-sensory mobile computer in existence," said Jonas Geust, a vice president at Nokia.

Nokia has put high-speed web access at the heart of its new device, along with one-button, 'always-on' access to social-networking sites such as Facebook. The phone also uses its built-in GPS technology to provide location-specific information. Nokia, which calls the service 'social location', said that it will enable N97 users to update their social-networking profiles with precise details about their location and find nearby friends.

The Nokia N97 is expected to go on sale in the first half of 2009, and will cost around £470 and is expected by the mid of 2009 in India.

Global GDP growh to be less than 1%

Scary thought to be in a period where in the global GDP grows at less than 1% this was told in the UN " world economic situation and prospects 2009" . With major economies that contribute to the consumption in recession. US, Japan and Europe contribute to about 70% of the world consumption with these economies in recession the impact will be global.

Nomura saying that the Indian GDP estimate for this year is only 6.7% saying that their will be a sharp decline in the growth rate in Q4 and expects the growth rate to be mere 5 % in the next year.

Scary thought if this forecast turns true then 15% of the Indian workforce will be unemployed and the salaries will fall by 60%.

The tips that will help one to land in a new job during the recession are : Six tips to help you land a new job.

Still the outlook for India is good from many organizations so their is some thing to smile. God is with us as he sent a smiley tonight for all of us. :-)

GLOBAL ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
COUNTRY DATA

Country	Item	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
India	Annual growth rate of real GDP, (%)	4.5	4.5	7.3	7.1	11.5	7.3	9.1	7.6	7.2
India	Annual CPI inflation rate, (%)	3.7	4.4	3.8	4	4.3	5.8	6.4	6.2	5.7

e=mc2 finally collaborated

Hundred years after Einstein gave the e=mc2 formula it was finally collaborated thanks to a heroic effort by the worlds best physicists. they used some of the mightiest super computers to compute the mass of the protons, neutrons and the particles of the nucleus of the atom.

According to te traditional model of particle physics, protons and neutrons comprise of smaller particles called the quarks and the formula e=mc2 has not been collaborated to the sub atomic particles. Even though the formula has been instrumental in the making of the ATOM BOMB.


The odd thing is this: the mass of gluons is zero and the mass of quarks is only five per cent. Where, therefore, is the missing 95 per cent?

The answer, according to the study published in the US journal Science on Thursday, comes from the energy from the movements and interactions of quarks and gluons.

resolving the formula to the sub atomic particle level has been difficult at the scale of the equations called the quantum chromodynamics.until now.

New Direct marketing tool

The dabbawalas of Mumbai are not just delivering lunches but have become a means of direct marketing for many companies from mutual funds to soft drinks.

The best part is the company can reach over a lakh of customers directly. The ISO certifies dabbawalas are also getting the benefit by earning a couple of hundreds more.

The means of advertising is sure to reach the people as the dabbawalas never lose the delivery. this means can also be used by the India Inc. to communicate effectively about the promotional activities as the people catered by the dabbawalas are mostly the middle income class.

The dabba has now transformed to a marketing communication tool.

Warning bells

After the Indian economic summit on Sunday the top leaders of the India inc. have warned of bad situations if the government doesn't take appropriate action to make funds available for the companies.



The corporate heads have told that they will forced to layoff or take other punitive action to reduce the costs. this is evident from the placements of premier b schools, the placements at IIM-A have seen a sharp decline in the average salaries. the salaries have fallen by over 42 percent compared to the last year and the overseas placements have fallen by 60 percent. The case is same in other premier b schools and IIMs across India.



The R.B.I is expected to cut the CRR by 200-250bps and SLR by other 100bps to make the banks lend to the corporates. With the general elections coming near the government is expected to take unconventional steps to induce liquidity in the market.



The mood at the summit was nothing but upbeat and the message was simple we need to act agressively and quickly.

Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.

This is the statement given by the "WHITE KNIGHT" Warren Buffett in an article written by him in news column. He said that this is the simple rule that dictates his buying. The statement might look to be philosophical and correlating to the statement given by sun tzu in his "THE ART OF WAR" that when the enemy attacks retreat; when the enemy retreats attack;

This is true as when the markets are booming amateur investors will be greedy to make money with out any knowledge of the market and economic life cycle and even the P/E ratio.When the world is investing the seasoned investor retreats and when the world is selling then the seasoned investor buys!!.

This can be seen in the present crisis situation,when the whole world is selling the two legendary investors Warren Buffett and Soros are investing from America to Australia. Buffett had invested 5 billion dollars in Goldman Sachs and 3 billion dollars in G.E. in preferred stocks. He also said that he is buying American stocks.

so my advise would be to gain wisdom and learn from the mistakes, if you cannot understand the mistake then better leave to experts or opt for mutual funds.

In Proverbs 4:7, the Word of God states “ Wisdom is the principle thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding”. The sad part is that amateur investors often have neither and think that God is speaking for his own health; But He’s not. He’s speaking for ours.

Reliance fresh costly....

Reliance fresh is celebrating the 2nd anniversary, but are the consumers happy? thats the big question. It has around 600 + centres in India and operating on this scale should give it a reasonable competitve advantage. Reliance is looking to backward integrate and produce vegetables and friuts and also having tieups with the farmers, but is this value being forwarded to the consumer?

I have done a small research on the prices and quality of vegetables and fruits in reliance fresh centers in vizag and the neighboring kirana and vegetables mandi's. The results are astonishing the prices in reliance fresh in some case are as high as 70% than the mandis. The price of potatoes was Rs. 8 in the kirana shop and astonishingly it was Rs.14 in the reliance fresh.The quality of the vegetables was also that good compared to the mandis.

The same was in the case of friuts with apples costing not less than Rs.130 in the reliance fresh. The Ambience is also not good with the cartons being stocked in the entrance.

Reliance fresh has to change its strategy otherwise the Indian consumer is not going to buy into it for long.

FED to cut rates this week

U.S fed is looking to cut the CRR rate by a minimum of 25bps to 1.25, the rate cut can also be upto 50 bps, this is to spur the economy. Because of the recent economic crisis the oil prices have dropped and the inemploymeny in the US has increased to a record high of 6.5% and expected to touch 7.5% by the year end.

with the christmas season coming the economic downturn is going to effect the company revenues and the growth of the country. This festival season as experienced by the Indian diwali which was a mere mediocre in the celebrations because of the soring prices and the economic uncertainity.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index released Tuesday showed a drop of 16.6 per cent in August from the year ago, the largest on record going back to 2000. The smaller, 10-city index, fell 17.7 per cent, the biggest decline in its 21-year history.

The fed cut is also expected to spur rally in the oil prices, with the OPEC cutting the production and planning to cut production further. According to me the oil prices are to stabilise around $75 by the year end.

Frame work to evaluate poverty in India

According to Professor Aasha Kapur the poverty evaluation done in India is not done properly she has come up with a frame work with drivers, maintainers, interrupters weighted framework

Drivers: What propels people into poverty?

High healthcare costs

Adverse market conditions

Loss of assets

High interest loans from moneylenders

Social expenses, deaths

Crop Failure

Maintainers: What keeps people stuck in poverty?

Casual agricultural labour

Landless households

Illiterate households

Larger households with more children

Interrupters: What helps escape from poverty?

More income earning opportunities

Proximity to urban areas

Improved Infrastructure

Initial literacy status of household head

Income from physical assets: cropland, livestock, house

Another important finding is that while more people among the Scheduled Castes had been able to escape poverty, fewer among Scheduled Tribes had.

Taken from www.ndtv.com

Japan set to be Indian IT's next big Market

With the economic meltdown in US the Indian IT companies are suffering a lot due to the loss of the clients. The share of financial sector as the client percentage in the Indian IT sector is about 1/3rd. The crisis has made it essential to the Indian IT companies to look beyond US, Europe too being in the financial crunch Japan looks to be good market.

The Indian IT exports to Japan stand at a mere 4 2 billion as of now. With a huge market availability due to the opportunities in the market, it also comes up with the threats that the Indian IT companies have to face.



Opportunities:

1. Second biggest economy:Japan is the worlds second biggest economy after US. Japans economy is highly technology dependent, giving a good chance for the companies to develop the market.
2. Application Development: Japan has low overall IT spending with spend/sales ratio being around 1-1.5 per cent for most industries as compared to around 3.5- 4 per cent in the US. BFSI and manufacturing are the highest spenders amongst all industries. Embedded systems development and engineering and R&D services are the prospective quick win service offerings for Indian vendors. Application development and maintenance are the next big opportunities.
3. Application implementation : Japanese companies are still working on the legacy systems so the Indian IT companies can help them implement new applications like SAP, Finnacle.
4. Shortage of Human resources: Japanese population is fast aging creating a shortage in the manpower, this is forcing companies to look out for alternatives in the emerging markets.

Challenges:

1. China:China is the biggest off shoring partner of japan. China has an advantage of having the cultural similarity with japan.But recently their have been problems due to off shoring to China.
2. Keiretsu model: The Japanese service industry is based on the keiretsu model, where in the supply chain in vertically integrated. The Oligopolistic control on the vendors and clients is high in the japanese IT sector.

Japan should be seen as along term partner and investment and not as the temporary solution to the present economic crisis in the west.