MosaStore Inc. at Richard Ivey School of Business

From one in those 56 business plan which came from all over Canada to making into Top 3! MosaStore validated its business feasibility at the largest Business Plan competition in Canada.

When I landed in London, Ontario , I was confident that we will do well. I was very impressed with the MBA facilities at Ivey School of Business. My room was excellent and the guest house had a wonderful cafeteria. The first day went well with Dry run presentations. However, one the the judges in dry run thought that our product was good for large corporations. Contrary to this, in our second presentation one of the judges said "Bingo! SMEs right on target!".

We made it to top three teams and finally finished second. The whole journey gave us a lot of insights into our business model. In fact I realized that we had to tighten our Go To Market Strategy.

MosaStore Entrepreneur Center on Facebook

Important Learning from Case Competitions

Recently (on 17th Nov 2008) I participated in an international case competition organized by Computer Associates Inc. at Las Vegas, US. This was my second case competition and I know there are few more still to come. This particular case competition was unique as it was totally dedicated to IT Management and Project Portfolio Management (PPM). Participating teams represented three continents and were from ten top universities. We, from the University of British Columbia did pretty well, however it was the learning experience that mattered the most.

This was a two-stage elimination case competition and we were given 20 mins to present our approach to the CIO of City of New York. Here are some of important tactics to excel in such case competitions:

Step 1 - Make Rules: Every organization has code of conduct; you also need to come out with a code of conduct for your team. It’s always good to make rules on how to take decisions. As these competitions are quite stressful and time critical, these rules make life easier and move the team ahead.

Step 2 - Know your team’s capabilities: It’s important that you delegate duties to the most fit person.

Step 3 - Homework: Do thorough research on the case provided. Go beyond the case and research using other resources such as Internet and databases. Spend some time to understand the environment before heading to solve the problem. As time is limited and you get only one chance, its better to have the most relevant approach.

Step 4 - Decision Makers: After all the hardwork, make sure you pass the right message to the right people. Look at their profile before preparing the PPT.

Mission Imbloggable

Mission Imbloggable link

Touchscreen mobile competition intensifies :)

Notice the competition in the mobile industry, with three biggies making a dive within a span of few months. After Apple's iPhone and Google's Android , Nokia finally unveiled its highly anticipated touchscreen phone - 5800 XpressMusic.

However Nokia's offering is relatively less sophisticated and priced lower than iPhone. It would be interesting to watch, how Apple reacts to price war after Nokia's launch. Recently, both Google and Apple has opened their operating system for developers. Can Nokia take this step to stay in competition?

More on http://www.smh.com.au/news/mobiles--handhelds/articles/nokia-takes-wraps-off-touchscreen-phone/2008/10/05/1223145150368.html

Start - "Blogging"


WHY
 BLOG?


- 104.7
 million 
people 
read 
blogs in 2007
- 145.3 
millions
 people 
will 
read
 blog
 by 
2012


DOES
 AGE
 MATTER?

- Younger 
Internet 
users 
read 
more 
blogs 
than
 their 
older counterparts

- The
 18
 to
 24
 year old
 age 
group 
showed 
the 
most 
extensive
 blog 
usage

DOES 
GENDER
 MATTER?



- Female 
are 
creating 
more 
blogs 
than 
males
- Among 
US
 Teens, 
female
 blog 
readers 
outnumber 
males

Source:
 eMarketer.com


Internet advertisement partnership deal of "Yahoo- Google" postponed

This deal was about creating a monopoly in online advertising industry. As "Google + Yahoo" handles more than 80% of searches in the US, this deal would shift more power towards search giants.

"Consumer advocates and customers questioned whether the deal would give Google too much control over advertising and information on the Web" - Bloomberg.com

US regulators did a good job to postpone this deal.

Reference : http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aYSDlnCKuC1k&refer=us

Awesome Blogs!

BREAKING
 NEWS, 
OPINIONS



TECHNOLOGY 
NEWS 
AND
 TRENDS



THE
 GADGET 
GUIDE


GADGETS
 &
 TECHNOLOGY


CULTURAL 
CURIOSITY 
AND
 INTERESTING 
TECHNOLOGIES


TIPS
 AND
 DOWNLOADS
 FOR
 GETTING 
THINGS 
DONE

NEWS,
 ANALYSIS 
AND 
IN‐DEPTH 
COVERAGE
 OF
 TECHNOLOGY



THE OFFICIAL 
GOOGLE 
BLOG


POLITICS


TRAVEL
BLOG, 
JOURNAL,
 TRAVELOGUE, 
DIARY