Independent Analysis: AI, SaaS, and Revenue Growth Strategy

Dan Ariely usuually gives you a viewpoint that is very often different and thought provoking. The article I amplified is I believe in the Dec edition of HBR Amplify’d from hbr.org If you practice kicking a soccer ball with your eyes closed, it takes only a few tries to become quite good at predicting where the ball will end up. But when “random noise” is added to the situation—a dog chases the ball, a stiff breeze blows through, a neighbor passes by and kicks the ball—the results become quite unpredictable. If you had to evaluate the kicker’s performance, would you punish him for not predicting that Fluffy would run off with the ball? Would you switch kickers in an attempt to find someone better able to predict Fluffy’s involvement? That would be absurd. And yet it’s exactly how we reward and punish managers. Managers attempt to make sense of the environment and predict what will result from their decisions. Read more at hbr.org   See...

This is a article in the Washington post by Christopher M. Schroeder Internet entrepreneur and angel investor, CEO of HealthCentral.com. In any place in the world troubles begin with economic woes, no gainful employment. From reading this article it seems like the power of entrepreneurship will overcome the troubles and give this part of the world a new hope and more properity. Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com The sold-out gathering had the earmarks of a typical Silicon Valley event: more than 2,400 hungry entrepreneurs and investors, most young adults, tethered to their mobile devices - sharing, debating and connecting. There was the requisite hip music. Speakers who had "been there" were mixing with kids new to the game, dashing out ideas on white boards and rallying each other to new ventures. That's where "typical" ended. This month's Celebration of Entrepreneurship 2010 was hosted not in San Francisco or New York but in Dubai. The participants were...

This is a new United Nations initiative which is so exciting . The article is a must read. The Academic Impact, formally launched Nov. 19, encourages schools and universities to endorse 10 principles that deal with human rights, sustainability, conflict resolution and literacy. The 10 principles represent a commitment to education’s role in advancing human rights, world citizenship, and inter-cultural dialogue and understanding. Why is the Academic Impact initiative so important to the future of the world? With increasing globalization, finances flow freely across continents as do goods, services and ideas. Unfortunately, so do the major problems facing humanity, such as terrorism, pandemic diseases, economic crises and environmental calamities. They all cross national borders with impunity, never stopping at passport control. Amplify’d from blog.nj.com Their optimism and hope for the future are propelling political causes; their distrust of a corporate world, motivated by greed, ...

You should definitely vote but even more you should check the list out for the best Small Business books to read. If the list is missing any books , this year you can submit the book as well. Amplify’d from smallbiztrends.com The 3rd Annual Small Business Book Awards are now open for voting through December 15, 2010.  We invite you to head on over and vote on your favorite business books ! The Awards celebrate the best books of 2010 for small business owners, managers, entrepreneurs and the self-employed. This year the Book Awards are bigger and better than ever.  The nomination and voting experience is more engaging and interactive: We’ve built a new and improved voting platform In case we’ve forgotten your favorite book, this year you are able to submit it online. Read more at smallbiztrends.com   See this Amp at http://bit.ly/gBVAhw

I always stress the importance of a great and warm handshake. This study found "ubjects who received the résumé on a heavy clipboard ranked the candidate as more qualified than those who read the same résumé on a lighter clipboard. Nocera believes this is because we equate heavy with serious; a heavy object may broadcast competence the way professional attire or a firm handshake does " Amplify’d from harvardmagazine.com Metaphors of touch infiltrate our language. When something goes easily, we say it was smooth sailing ; an uncouth person is coarse . We have a soft spot for someone we love; the opposite is being hard-hearted . In fact, it is difficult to escape these metaphors: try to think of a synonym for rough day , and hard day probably comes to mind first. Thus, the ways we describe the world draw on tactile sensations and the emotions associated with them. But research by psychology doctoral student Christopher Nocera suggests that the connections go both ways: that th...

Fans join Facebook pages to get some value from the relationship. Some of these value is in the form of conversations and discussions and getting help from the community. I work for Network Solutions and am happy to share some thoughts on our Facebook Community.  We started this as a small business community and to foster dialogue between members and help where necessary. Things are working well and the community is helping a lot and in terms of giving back Network Solutions has a special offer for Facebook Fans $1.95/yr domain name and a $1000 Network Solutions gift certificate Sweepstakes. Check the offer out at  http://facebook.com/networksolutions  and also give me a little retweet and blog love please. First published at Shashi Bellamkonda's Amplify Feed

URL:   http://growsmartbusiness.com/growsmartbiz-conference-ag... Looks like a great line-up. Of course I'm on opposite presentations I want to see! (But in fairness, I want to see them all. :-D) See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/egzy

An "Apple iPad 2" will hit store shelves as soon as the spring of 2011 – and this rejiggered   iPad could ship with two digital cameras, allowing users access to the same FaceTime technology available on   the Apple iPhone 4 . That's the gossip being floated this week by Brian Marshall, an analyst with the firm Gleacher and Company, who sources his report in part to hardware manufacturers in Asia.  Read the rest of the story at  http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2010/1120/Apple-iPad-2-Expect-it-by-April-analyst-says

I always wonder why there are no well known Indian food chains and that among Indian restaurants there seems to be a steady turnover of names, chefs and styles. I feel a bit sad that Tabla is closing down in New York. I did not get a chance to eat there. Danny Meyer and Floyd Cardoz dd a great job I think bringing Indian food mainstream and making it sexy . In a few years the next best thing Indian will emerge and i am hoping it will be a chain of Fast food restaurants serving idlies with different curries which is healthy . Amplify’d from www.business-standard.com As the market for Indian cuisine expands in the US, restaurateurs face a dilemma: To stay traditional or try fusion? What the bleep is curry?” asks an exasperated Maneet Chauhan. The India-born executive chef of Vermilion, a chic restaurant offering Indian-Latin American fusion cuisine in New York and Chicago, is referring to the frequent requests she still gets for “the recipe for curry”. That, on a p...

Advantage 1 is that you don't have to ask Klout to manually update the score. Many partners are using Klout and this may help if you want to check someone's Klout score. Amplify’d from klout.com Klout Scores Now Update Daily We are pleased to announce that Klout Scores are now automatically processed every day. With over 950 application partners integrating Klout and some of the biggest brands doing Klout influencer campaigns, we are building the standard in measuring influence across the social web. Along with daily score processing, we have improved the Klout scoring algorithm. We will continue evolving our influence scoring algorithm to meet the ever-changing dynamics across social networks like Twitter, Facebook and beyond. How will this release affect my Klout profile? You no longer need to manually update your score, we will do that for you automatically each day. On your score analysis page you can see the new daily score data going back to October 21st. Read more at kl...

URL:   http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2010/November/Pew-Int... This is from the Pew Internet & American Life Project showing how youngsters use communication tools See this Amp at http://bit.ly/bWPNik

Internet Trends Presentation

This is a great take on the future of India's technology strategy Amplify’d from techcrunch.com But college-dropout tech entrepreneurs like Gondal are extremely rare in India. Most make the wise choice to complete their education before joining a startup. So far, the biggest inhibitor of youth entrepreneurship in India has been the social stigma associated with failure and the low social esteem bestowed on startups. In the arranged-marriage system—which is still the norm in India—a young male who joined a company such as Infosys or IBM would command the best marriage proposals, and those who took the startup path risked trading down. No longer.  All of the young entrepreneurs I met said either that they had told their parents that they would find their own partners, or that their parents supported their decision. It also used to be that nearly all the graduates of India’s prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) would join investment banks o...

A new browser Rockmelt was introduced about a week ago with the promise to help people with the tasks that they spend the most time on. In their own words 'build your world right into your browser" from the Rockmelt Blog The October 2010 Stats from  http://www.w3schools.com put the browser usage as : Internet Explorer 29.7 % Firefox 44.1% Chrome 19.2% Safari 3.9% and Opera 2.2% I was excited when Google Chrome came out and one thing that is positive for me is that Rockmelt is also based on Chromium, the open source project behind Google’s Chrome browser. I must thank my Friend Wendy Scherer of the Consumer Insights group - Social Studies Group Just like Google relies on your Google account to make your Chrome browsers in Sync, Rockmelt asks for facebook login (they need to explain why thats is the first step). When you are installing Rockmelt you will need to close Chrome. Here are some observations. Bookmarkbar from chrome should be transferred seemles...

l

People who walked the city streets scored significantly lower on attention and working-memory tests. The result is something called directed attention fatigue, a neurological symptom that occurs when our voluntary attention system, the part of the brain that allows us to concentrate in spite of distractions, becomes worn down. More interesting stuff in the article Amplify’d from hms.harvard.edu BOSTON, Mass. (November 9, 2010)—For the first time in history, more people live in cities than in rural areas. According to the United Nations, that urban head count tallies up to more than half of the world’s 6.7 billion people. While city life may offer many benefits—ready access to social and cultural events, more employment opportunities, and the promise of higher living standards, as examples—research does show that city life can have drawbacks. For one thing, it’s hard on the brain. Scientists who have begun to look at how the city affects our brains hav...

Any optimism is good news. Also take a look at the Network Solutions?University of Maryland's Small Business Success Index at http://bit.ly/smallbiz4 Amplify’d from blogs.reuters.com Small businesses are feeling better about the economy and are looking to grow in 2011, according to a new survey released this week by online marketing firm Constant Contact. “One of the biggest changes we’ve seen from the spring to the fall (surveys) is the presence of social media in their minds,” said Groves, adding the Facebook response was up from 50 percent in the spring. “Small business owners have so little time to spend on new things that they hope will build their businesses and social media is one of those things right now.” Read more at blogs.reuters.com   See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/f0qv

Got to try this put but seems that instant gratification is overtaking us Amplify’d from www.informationweek.com Google on Tuesday plans to augment its Google Instant search service with Instant Previews , pop-up windows that provide images of the Web sites listed in search results. Google users throughout the world can expect to start seeing magnifying glass icons added just to the right of search results links in the next few days as the service is deployed. Clicking on the magnifying glass will open a snapshot of the Web page associated with the link. Read more at www.informationweek.com   See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/evjq

Got to try this put but seems that instant gratification is overtaking us Amplify’d from www.informationweek.com Google on Tuesday plans to augment its Google Instant search service with Instant Previews , pop-up windows that provide images of the Web sites listed in search results. Google users throughout the world can expect to start seeing magnifying glass icons added just to the right of search results links in the next few days as the service is deployed. Clicking on the magnifying glass will open a snapshot of the Web page associated with the link. Read more at www.informationweek.com   See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/evjq

Cool story also in Silicon India http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/7_yr_old_Indianorgin_in_Obamas_business_team-nid-73679.html?utm_campaign=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Subscriber Amplify’d from voices.washingtonpost.com Dozens of American business leaders mingled with Indian business executives over finger sandwiches at Mumbai's U.S.-India Business Council summit, where President Obama spoke on Saturday night. But the star of the morning was Arya Ika, a 7-year-old Indian American in a sharp business suit and red tie, who hopes to one day become the president of the United States as the "Indian Obama." Or at least that's what Krishna Ika, Arya's father and an Indian American business leader here for the summit, wants for his son. They live in Southborough, Mass., and Arya, studies at the same private school that John F. Kennedy attended. Holding court like a rock star, Arya fielded questions in the ocean-front lobby of the Hotel Trident. A...

The GrowSmartBiz Conference organized by the Washington Business Journal and Network Solutions was held on Friday Nov 5th in Washington DC. Over 450 small business attended . The agenda included talks, tips and case studies from over 30 well known national speakers f rom all over the US. Through this post I want to give you a few guidelines if you are posting content relating to the conference: a) Tag the post with "GrowSmartBiz" b) Conference organizer credit Washington Business Journal  http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/ and Network Solutions http://www.networksolutions.com c) Video stream of some of the sessions are at http://yayastream.com/blog . Videos are embeddable with credit. pleasecredit yayastream Stacty Yamaoka d) Pictures under creative commons are at ( use with attribution : http://www.flickr.com/photos/drbeachvacation/sets/72157625320266468/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/52457073@N08/sets/72157625334915798/with/5155597491/ ...

The President looked comfortable as he answered the questions. see the video here http://goo.gl/03NOb . I think the democratic party is doing a lot to foster India US relations and the Republicans I think will agree. Also note the strategy of impressing the younger demographic who are the future customers of Us goods. Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com We want nothing more than a stable, prosperous and peaceful Pakistan," Obama told the students gathered in a courtyard of St. Xavier's College to see him. "But I'm also going to say something that may surprise you. The country that has the biggest stake in Pakistan's success is India ." Encounters with young people have become staples of Obama's travels abroad, a nod to his appeal as a symbol of U.S. progress and tolerance. And in few countries will young people make more of a difference in the short term than here. Read more at www.washingtonpost.com See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/eq6v

I admire the courage and goodness of this Virgina native who is meeting President Obama in Mumbai today in creating a foundation to hep young people in conflict areas Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com MUMBAI - Virginia resident Kia Scherr walked quietly through the jasmine-scented halls of Mumbai's Oberoi Trident high-rise hotel as Indian staff members gently smiled. On Nov. 26, 2008, her husband, Alan Scherr, 58, and their 13-year-old daughter Naomi were killed when gunmen opened fire in the hotel's oceanfront restaurant. The Scherrs were among six Americans killed in the Mumbai attacks , which left 166 people dead and more than 230 wounded. Now Kia Scherr has come to India to meet President Obama during his three-day visit to Mumbai and New Delhi. She said she wants to thank him in person for the condolence letter he wrote her after the attacks, which were carried out by 10 gunmen from Pakistan . Read more at www.washingtonpost.com   See this Amp at http://amplify.c...

#growsmartbiz @rohitbhargava talking lessons from donuts

#growsmartbiz about to begin - follow hashrag and live stream #growsmartbiz @barrymoltz rocking it

@jillfoster @stevenfisher at #growsmartbiz happy hour

URL:   http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13... See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/eill

Probably no generation has received as much fanfare as the GI Generation, or Greatest Generation. Born before 1925, they saved the world from Hitler in World War II. With a strong sense of team play, they promoted peer solidarity through unions (whose U.S. membership peaked in 1948) and new government social programs. They were followed by the ultra-conformist Silent Generation (born 1925 to 1942), who gave us solid, though gray "organization men." The Silents went home to manicured suburbs that seemed to stifle egos but promoted stable, long-term careers and friendly reliability. The Silents gave rise to the boisterous individualism of Baby Boomers (1943-1960), named for the spike in birth rates that began after World War II. Focused on inner vision, Boomers questioned authority, trusted no one over 30, and crowded into "culture careers," such as teaching and journalism. They're proud of their work ethic and need to infuse careers with mission and meaning. Gene...

I am really excited and also thrilled with anticipation for the GrowSmartBiz conference on Nov 5th. Networking starts on Thu 4th with a Happy Hour at the President's Bar. We will be giving away a few tickets to the movie "The Social Network "and our friends at Reston Limo will be offering a tour of the "Monuments by Moonlight" . Happy hour registration is at http://growsmartbiz2010.eventbrite.com BUZZ : Rohit Bhargava - Our Marketing keynote Speaker @rohitbhargava tweeted this : @firebelly Thanks, looking forward to seeing you at #growsmartbiz too! Sneak preview: I think I'll be talking about donuts & marketing .. To which Duncan Alney (@firebelly) another speaker responded : well@rohitbhargava since I am duncan (often confused with dunkin) Ill attend with the hopes of great content & Free donuts? #growsmartbiz  Great speakers and great content and people have started referring to this conference as a one day MBA for Small Business.  ...