Talk of Many Things - Latest Comments

Re: Indian Education System is the Best … for India!

Raj — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:52:39 -0000

However we do have to admit we have a long way to go, as our current high school system is extremely "inefficient". There is a tremendous waste of resources and the inherent curiosity of students are not utilized maximally.

In a world where employers are complaining about graduates having no work or life skills, our schools succeed only at creating clerks - its original aim when the British introduced the system. It creates followers, and not leaders. I'm not referring to the top Indian institutions, but schools and colleges in general.
We need to create leaders, not followers to attain maximum potential.

During a time when the western world is focusing on innovation and creativity, we are playing "catch-up" doing the left-brained analytic work that the Westerners did at the turn of the century during the Industrial Revolution.

Indian institutions are successful only due to the sheer NUMBER of students in India. If we were to calculate the efficiency, or the percentage of productive students produced per total number educated, we wouldn't be very high up.

Although many other systems are lagging behind, igniting the flame of passion for learning in Indian students will help in tapping India's unmatched potential and give it a lead over the other nations.

New Zealand's educational system (involving clusters of charter or community-elected schools where one school acts as a coordinator for innovation), the Finnish educational system, or the Swedish Forest Kindergarten system (low infrastructure costs) are good examples that can be adapted to Indian needs.

The Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) and the IB systems offer frameworks that can be adapted into cost-effective methods.

Although India will certainly reach that level, I believe that the change will come from the youngsters who have the problems of the current system fresh in their minds, and not from older individuals who have gone through the system and learn to accept it. This is not necessarily rationalization, but is most likely the result of the huge difference in demands imposed on two different generations.

Re: The Tug-of-War Between Different Pricing Models

David — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:04:17 -0000

Managing perception of value is not difficult at all because it just never needs to be done.

Value can only ever be in the eye of the beholder, so the customer has to tell you how much value they will derive.

Often they will need help to understand value. This is not difficult either. It is a skill that is rarely innate but it can easily be learned by most people.

Re: The Tug-of-War Between Different Pricing Models

David — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:59:14 -0000

I agree with Pricing Prophets. As an example, may I quote a story about my own business.

I don't have an hourly or daily rate because I set my prices purely based on the value the customers tell me - before work ever starts - that they will derive from the results I produce.

Once I went back and calculated my hourly rate, mainly because it would create a good story. The best hourly rate I have ever worked for is £6,000 per hour, yes per hour!

The customer and I agreed the value of the result and the price - £500 - for producing it. The customer happily paid me the price and I delivered a totally acceptable result well within the desired timescale. The delighted customer neither knew nor cared how little time - 5 minutes - it had taken me.

Re: The Tug-of-War Between Different Pricing Models

Ketharaman Swaminathan — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:13:21 -0000

@9618a94cb29aeaa2c058208c4cc01ce8:
Thank you for your comments. We fully agree that it can be very challenging to simultaneously manage a customer's perception around cost and value.

Re: The Tug-of-War Between Different Pricing Models

softwarepricing — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 09:24:44 -0000

While I agree with PricingProphets that people don't generally care about your costs, I think they do if a). your prices are so low relative to costs (known or perceived) that you may go out of business or b). perceptions of the offering (not just the product) haven't been managed so people see/understand the value.

The GBP25 breakfast is a good example. To the hotel guest, a person on an expense account, or someone who is meeting a client, the price may be just fine -- in line with the price of a 5 star hotel.

People who are price sensitive would probably look at the bill of materials and decide the price was too high. They might look at the surrounding, the qualifications of the chef, the service, etc. and value all of these elements as nil.

These same people might view the same breakfast for GBP1 or 2.50 as fair since they didn't have to cook the meal or clean up. (If they were really price sensitive and didn't place a value on their time, they would likely only buy the ingredients -- at a high price shop.)

What this boils down to is the need to manage a customer's perception of both the value and the costs -- a task that can be very difficult.

Re: The Tug-of-War Between Different Pricing Models

Ketharaman Swaminathan — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 03:36:10 -0000

@Pricing Prophets:

Thank you for comment. We don't subscribe to the view that buyers don't care about costs.

Maybe it's a cultural thing and varies from country to country, but we know lots of people in both B2B and B2C who keep doing back-of-the-envelope calculations of what something should cost and then assess whether the quoted price is fair or tantamount to scalping. It's another matter as to how qualified such people are in making such calculations, and who determines what's fair and what's not, and so forth, but point is, these are potential buyers and they follow such practices.

We believe that companies like iSuppli that provide detailed bill-of-material and manufacturing costs of various products (e.g. iPad2) will reinforce this practice. Furthermore, not all buyers believe themselves to be capable of assessing the value of what they're about to buy before buying and using it for a certain period.

Re: The Tug-of-War Between Different Pricing Models

Pricing Prophets — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 23:43:58 -0000

Interesting post. What you didn't point out is that customers (B2B or B2C) don't care about what it costs to produce a product or service, but they do care about the value they receive. Yet 70% - 80% of companies still use cost-plus pricing.

At PricingProphets.com, the worlds only crowdsourcing platform devoted to pricing, our experts only provide recommendations based on value-based pricing.

Re: Indian Education System is the Best … for India!

Ketharaman Swaminathan — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:29:15 -0000

Good question. However, for a country like India, education is largely a means to an end of securing a good job, career, etc. As the Indian IT industry has shown, our institutes have succeeded in producing massive quantity of students. While featuring in the Top 100 universities of the world is a noble goal, absence from this list does not negate the success of Indian education system in performing its role as means to the end, instead of end in itself.

Re: Indian Education System is the Best … for India!

Chandankumarjain — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:03:40 -0000

If so why not even a single indian institution comes under top hundred institution in world?????????

Re: Creating The “Network Glue”

Ketharaman Swaminathan — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 12:16:29 -0000

The just-launched HouseFix.com seems to be a good option. It provides recommendations from your neighbors who are identified via proximity of zip code. HouseFix is currently available only for USA residents.

Re: A Little Communication Can Go A Long Way

Ketharaman Swaminathan — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 11:33:30 -0000

Yet another example: After bungling my order for rewards redemption and receiving my complaint in this regard, this top MNC bank apologized profusely and promised to re-initiate the order. A couple of weeks later, I receive the ordered two items, along with a huge bag. In the absence of any mention of this bag in the covering letter, I don't know if the bank chose to send me an additional gift as token of its apology or bungled somebody else's order by sending their bag to me!

Re: Why B2B Suppliers Should Accept Credit Cards

quick joomla — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 01:24:08 -0000

As the North American distributor Banksys Point of Sale (POS), the BNA has assembled a world class team of professionals dedicated to providing intelligent payment solutions. Intelligent Technology Solutions Smart Business

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Re: MSEB Tops Online Bill Payment Consumer Experience

LIC Online payment — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 07:25:17 -0000

very good

Re: What If Google Only Displayed Ads?

Ketharaman Swaminathan — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:45:07 -0000

I'd seen Google ads only on the top and right. Now, according to this article, Google has started experimenting with ads even at the bottom of its search result pages!

http://searchengineland.com/ad...

Re: FMCG Manufacturers Adopt The “If You Can’t Beat Them, Join ‘Em” Policy

bag manufacturer — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:48:45 -0000

The policy is good for products users,
FMCG sets a good example.

Re: Who Will Bell The ‘QR Code Reader’ Cat?

Litigation funding — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 01:25:22 -0000

Its very informative article.In this article the Or is which prefer the smart response.Its makes the business card little bit more interesting for the businessman.Grateful to you for sharing his article with us..Keep sharing with us.

Re: Who Will Bell The ‘QR Code Reader’ Cat?

Ketharaman Swaminathan — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 09:34:35 -0000

Having cracked this recently, we're happy to make this technology available to others in the form of our QR360 offering. Going beyond Quick Response, our QR360 codes also support a SmartResponse. Subsequent to our launch of QR360 in mid July, we plan to charge a onetime fee of US$ 10 per code carrying lifetime validity. Until then, we're giving away one QR360 absolutely free-of-cost to the first 100 customers who send us their business card. More information can be found at www.qr360.info.

Re: Who Will Bell The ‘QR Code Reader’ Cat?

Sovereign coins — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 03:52:08 -0000

Well written article.I will appreciate your writing skills.Its great. QR codes put little excitement in our business card & flyer by link this with you tube.

Re: Who Will Bell The ‘QR Code Reader’ Cat?

Business Card Printing — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 03:04:23 -0000

Hey,nice post.Well written article.QR codes allow our phones & devices to do every things like video,editing & everything.These codes are very helpful for us.I like this article.Keep it up.

Re: Who Will Bell The ‘QR Code Reader’ Cat?

Rajesh Balasubramanian — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:13:37 -0000

Yes, I am able to scan the above QR code on my smartphone and add the contact to my phonebook

Re: Who Will Bell The ‘QR Code Reader’ Cat?

Ketharaman Swaminathan — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 07:59:37 -0000

Test

Re: Who Will Bell The ‘QR Code Reader’ Cat?

Ketharaman Swaminathan — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:28:13 -0000

@Rajesh R: Thank you for your tip. Please check if you're able to scan the above QR code on your smartphone and add the contact to your phonebook.

Re: Who Will Bell The ‘QR Code Reader’ Cat?

Rajesh Balasubramanian — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 09:05:39 -0000

The solution which enables the user to save the contact is to use a PHP script which forces the download of the vcf contact file onto the mobile phone

Re: Why Are Hotel Taxes So Different?

Pawan10k — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 03:46:40 -0000

Same is true for taxes on rooms now, you will be paying service tax and luxury tax both. Funda being State tax is charged after applying Central Govt. Tax, agreed on your products / services point though.

Re: Debt Consolidation Comes To India

Bad Credit Mortgag — Fri, 20 May 2011 03:28:32 -0000

Why India need debt consolidation if the already have strong economy.