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Practical Analysis: Time To Embrace The Netbook

Posted by in Netbook

 

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When Asus launched the first “Netbook” in the market in 2007- it created a sense of excitement with the customers who were suddenly seeing a notebook at a very low price. The same sense of excitement did not percolate down to the other vendors who took a wait & watch attitude. 

Today- The Netbook’s time has arrived- and whether the hardware vendors like it or not- this is a product that is here to stay.  Kudos to Intel for creating a brand category, that has fast evolved to become a mainstay in the consumer segment.  That said, it has also reached a stage where many Mid size & bigger organizations are beginning to look at this as an option for the IT purchase for their employees.  

Think about it –  in these recessionary times (well, technically, we are ‘supposed’ to be moving out of recession), many companies are looking at ways of keeping the cost structures down- but at the same time becoming smarter about not letting go of their technical edge… and trying to balance both is going to be a bit of a challenge!  A computer, that is both cost effective as well as comes with the basic features (the latest netbooks infact are almost full featured) that will make a mobile employee more effective, is a welcome option.  Instead of buying a full featured notebook, the Netbook is definitely an option worth considering.

This article has some interesting thoughts- but I am looking this as a mainstay & looking forward to a state where these Netbooks also drive the features up- while forcing the cost of Notebooks to fall in the very near future.

As a consumer, these are indeed good times to shop for a PC 🙂

http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/leadership/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=221100256

 

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Quaking like ducks or Soaring like Eagles

Posted by in Personal Effectiveness

This is an article I read many years ago. Earlier today, I got a mail from a friend where this article again surfaced.  As I read it, I started thinking how much these kind of messages are required on a daily basis by many of us…  This is not a original mail- but still a wonderful read- just for us to reflect & change the attitude – which, at times, does degenerate to become negative 🙂 (at least it does for me).

Enjoy…

No one can make you serve customers well. That’s because great service is a choice.

Years ago, my friend, Harvey Mackay, told me a wonderful story about a cab driver that proved this point. He was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine.

Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey. He handed my friend a laminated card and said: "I’m Wally, your driver. While I’m loading your bags in the trunk I’d like you to read my mission statement." Taken aback, Harvey read the card. It said: Wally’s Mission Statement: To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.

This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, "Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf."

My friend said jokingly, "No, I’d prefer a soft drink."

Wally smiled and said, "No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice."

Almost stuttering, Harvey said, "I’ll take a Diet Coke."

Handing him his drink, Wally said, "If you’d like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today."

As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card. "These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you’d like to listen to the radio."

And as if that weren’t enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him.

Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day.

He also let him know that he’d be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts.

"Tell me, Wally," my amazed friend asked the driver, "have you always served customers like this?" Wally smiled into the rearview mirror. "No, not always. In fact, it’s only been in the last two years.

My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day.

He had just written a book called You’ll See It When You Believe It. Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you’ll rarely disappoint yourself.

He said, `Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition.Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.’"

"That hit me right between the eyes," said Wally. "Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers.

The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more."

"I take it that has paid off for you," Harvey said.

"It sure has," Wally replied. "My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I’ll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don’t sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can’t pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action."

Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab.

I’ve probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it.

Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn’t do any of what I was suggesting. Johnny the Bagger and Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice.

They decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles.

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6

7 Kinds of relationships to Social Media- Extension of thought

Posted by in Internet Marketing

I was recenly reading this blog by Rajesh Shetty (http://www.activegarage.com/7-kinds-of-relationship-to-social-media). I look upto Rajesh & people like him, who seem to effortlessly churn out quality content & original thought- that keeps me wondering.  This particular blog set me thinking on similar lines. Yes, ROI is absolutely critical – but it is also a subset of the kind of audience you are referring to. For a more generic user (those spend time on Facebook, Squidoo, myspace etc) ROI, is not the central purpose of dabbling in Social media in the first place.

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So where do you fit in? What could be other ways (and I am sure there are other models in place), which can be used for this? 

 

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created using Microsoft OneNote

For someone who spends a lot of time on the net purely for social purposes, the opportunity is to leverage the time, the knowledge gained (sic!) and convert it to some form of money!  Though, this would depend on each individuals’ personal objective for being there in the first place.

Think about it! Where do you fit in?

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