Identity crisis ....

There are few things that make me disrupt my well planned schedule and force me to post. Well currently I'm mighty pissed off because my name has been through the muck and into the dung. Not that I have been framed or something, But that each and every son of a motherless goat has decided that it is his / her birthright to spell my name incorrectly.

It all started with the Maharashtra Government when some pighead decided that the Father's name has to be appended to an individuals name. And so, my Christian name of Gordon Maxmillan D'Souza was undone and redone to D'Souza Gordon Gerald. Yeah, the surname has to be written first. Bloody clanish mentality. Even today people are more famous by their surnames. Maharashtrians still refer to each other as Patil, Pawar, Deshmukh, Waghmare, etc.

If that was not enough some smartass in college decided to call me Go-vardhan. I joined in the fun. I did not mind it then. But what I really do mind is people calling me Gordan. (Pronounced: Gor-done). WTF!!!! My name sounds more Isreali rather than Scottish.

I am frustrated with efforts to correct peoples mistakes. I think I should name my kid some simple name which can be easily pronounced in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarathi, Dravidian scripts, European languages, Hispanic, Mohamedean languages, etc.

If this is not enough, word has been going around that I'm a Mallu!!!??? Give me a break guys!

PS: This was posted in utter frustration and the pressure of an end term on 'Investment Management' and 'International Corporate Finance' on my head. Not to mention a Unicorn who insists on honing my presentation skills for 4 hours in between the 24 hours that the above two end terms take place. Under no circumstances is it to be inferred as instability of character or egoistic manifestations. I just lost my temper. That's all.

The Haitus ...

Have been off blogging for quite some time now ... basically due to lack of sleep. Not that I have been burning the midnight oil or anything like that. But that I have been abused in the name of academic rigour. It has been submission week(s) at MDI for the past fortnight with every professor worth his salt tormenting us poor souls with deadlines ;) Sounds like I'm in a prison camp or something, right?! ... Well not exactly. There have been the drunken nights after the parties. Clarification: The parties were held to commemorate the announcement of deadlines.

Apart from that there have been 'Student Affairs' matters which required resolving matters at 4 AM in the morning after which all sleep vanished due to the senile show on display. Thankfully I'm not part of the beleaguered lot that is forced to listen to psychedelic speeches. As someone put it, "It felt like I was clicking on a hyperlink on every sentence!" So the pain was cut short ... but the post hoc discussions and analysis blew away any chance of catching a few winks.

This place keeps on surprising me ... but that can be the subject of some other post. Right now, I am in the crazy world of end term exams and also considering the fact that we have a term break after the exams, I will be blogging infrequently.

And finally as always exciting thoughts come to me during the exam time. This time I have thought of recording the moments in the short but eventful time that I have been here. This will not be some sort of 'Snapshots from Hell' or a 5 point someone. (For those who dint know, I am actually a 5 pointer!) I am planning a more enriching and juicy mix to entertain me (and others who share similar sentiments) after I leave. I have got a rough idea as to what to include what not too; in fact I have been allocating chapters to 'great' personalities on a temporary arrangement. My co-author is Ramesh , a friend and pretty interesting chap too. Judging from our contrasting writing styles it should be a good read.

So I guess unless the earth rumbles or the Unicorn speaks (the Unicorn is one of the characters in my to-be-book!), its gonna be some time till the next post. Wish me luck for the end terms! ;)

Tough questions!

Some time back we had a guest lecture by a guy from Saatchi & Saatchi on culture and values in Indian advertising. One of the remarks he made really got my attention. He said," Values are something you are willing to pay a price for" And then he proceeded on to say "Scribble down some values that youa re willing to pay a price for."

The next two minutes were probably one of the most baffling moments I have ever come across. (The 1st place was taken by TP Ghosh for his mid term paper on International Corporate Finance). I thought and thought hard. Have I ever been willing to pay a price for anything in times of crisis, adversity, etc. Even if I had, my mind was not allowing me to remember it. And so at the end of it, I scribbled something that had been true with 80-85% accuracy levels. And that was true with all the things I thought were my values. It was with some accuracy level. Still I wasn't satisfied because I didn't find anything I thought strongly about.

On the negative side, it may sound too rigid to stand by something 100% of the time. All situations are a result of the actions of humans; and most of the time there are a reflection of others actions (exception is if you live in isolation!). Hence the need for flexibility. For eg. If being on time is something you are willing to pay a price for. There will be situations when others will be late. At such times are you willing to pay a price by losing the person or are you willing to be flexible and get on with life?

Great insight to have nonetheless. BTW do you have something you are willing to pay a price for? ;-)

Hence proved!

Ha Ha ... seems like Bhavishyavani! Just some time ago I wrote a post on meaningless numbers. And in less than a fortnight it got proved. The subject in question this time round is 'Consumer Behaviour' and the culprit is yours truly!

I have no clue what CB is about. Just that each consumer behaves differently and there are clusters of consumers who behave in ways that are common to some of them. So if you have to sell anything to them, you gotta get into their shoes and understand them. Period. I do not know any jargon, have almost been an NPA (Non Performing Asset) for my academic group, and understanding consumers actually baffles me coz I have my own style of buying, selecting, etc which I have observed doesn't fit in the way others (normal people) go about their shopping. Which means that I should be a dud at CB.

Fortunately or Unfortunately (I don't know which!) I seem to be in the very top percentile of the class for the mid-term. Yeah its just the mid terms and things can change significantly for by the time the end term is behind me but for the moment my marks say that I am a person who understands CB better than most of the others in the class. And so my theorem 'Grades are meaningless' seems to hold (a lot of!) water. They can be manipulated. Hence Proved.

PS: I am wondering if there is ever a system which is foolproof enough to mirror a student's skills

Mountain delight ... Part 7 All good things come to an end

It was a wonderful trip. I guess if one actually spent some time on understanding himself and others he would gain maximum benefit from the course. Some final pics.


Contemplative here ... looking at the mountains when Bhobe decided to use me as a guinea pig to test the finer points of Evaristo's cam!


Pranesh, as usual the stud of the North, seems to know all the Godforsaken places in the world. Here he led us to a steep cleft in the rock face which led to a place he called 'The Rock'. Me with my fear of heights decided not to do any 'chavagiri'. I lay down quietly on the rock with largest surface area. Great pic no doubt!

A jungle path behind the rocks!


Stepped mountain slopes.


Stepped slopes again!


And then it was evening. Time to pack up and head for the aademic rigour of MDI ... :(

Mountain delight ... Part 6 (Cliff capers ... Rock Climbing)

Rock climbing required a lot of understanding of the rock face to know where to put your foot. It also required more cheering / motivation and a lot of coaching. It tested the aspects of how well your team gelled together, and a leader as a coach. Pranesh led with strategy, Deepa led as a coach. 'Google' Guglani led as a motivator. Others coordinated the effort. I chipped in with my usual 2 cents. It provided us with many insights about ourselves. Above all it was a very physical activity.

We had to scale this


Another view of the same rock. This looks less scary!


My years at the pull-up bar at home came in handy when my turn came. Not too difficult considering the fact that I had an 'A' in Physical Training in School. I slipped once but the rope held me well. Finally I scaled the rock. Would have loved it if someone had actually taken a pic of me when I was climbing! :(


In the pic above, arms raised in victory.


The cheering party.


Other views of the valley below

Mountain delight ... Part 5 (Cliff capers ... Rappelling)

Rappelling was another exercise where we had two teams with one appointed leader. The idea was to observe how groups behave when the stakes are high, when risk is increased and to observe the transition from group to team. Different aspects of leadership were observed at different parts of the exercise and one had to seamlessly slip into those many roles. It was a good experience, since the feedback from the previous day really helped.

Myself .... shit scared at first, but took to the challenge. Dint follow the instructions of the observer. Got a lot of flak for that.

Got into the groove of things later on. Biggest grouse is that I dint smile for the camera. At this point I swivelled around twice, and banged the rock face. Minor bruises. Anyways I touched base soon. From base, it overlooked the valley below. A stronge breeze was blowing and standing there actually felt like you were lording over the area!

Base. The end point for the rappelling exercise.

Pic taken from base

Other views down the cliff

The surrounding mountainside


And some more of the mountainside

Mountain delight ... Part 4 (The morning after)

Well ill type less & let you just admire the beauty of the place

View from the resort of the valley below ...


The morning sun as seen through the branches of the trees in the resort.


Another one of those picture perfect moments...


Can you see the Himalayas in the distance? Look carefully. There is a faint hint of the snow capped mountains.


Self indulgence ...


We were here .... the lodge in the background. Foreground we had to use cheap models! Jetwani, Justice, Neta, Sameer Dhar.


Another view from the resort.

Mountain delight ... Part 3 (Rollercoaster)

For the rollercoaster we were divided into 4 groups and were given some resources. Each team had to build a structure that would trigger a ball in the next structure. The objective was to coordinate efforts and share best practices across teams (which dint happen obviously!).

Well to put things modestly, we had the most robust and economical structure. The mechanical engineer in me to the rescue of the team helped matters. ;) Have a look at the other structures in the above picture. Bloody redundant, wastage of resources and loose as hell. Jus kidding! we dint work as a team so all my great technical inputs were reduced to an insignificant speck. See pic below.


Testing 1 2 3 .... Sameer Dhar scratching his ass as the tension mounts

Mountain delight ... Part 2 (Navigation exercise)

The Navigation exercise involved 2 teams led by 3 leaders each. The objective was to collect 7 clues and return to base within 90 minutes. The route was through the mountainside, forest and farms. I was one of the leaders for my team. We completed the task in 83 minutes and compromised one clue. The other team took considerably more time and compromised 3 clues.

A lot has been discussed in class about the different behaviours that we observed. The key takeways of the activity were to look at things as a whole and not as disparate parts. It also involved resolving conflicts, taking key decisions with ambigous data when clues were hard to find and finally taking the entire team along; of course learning to have fun along the way!


The terrain ... fun in the mountains...


Searching for clues at the temple. Tough decision! compromised a clue & moved on.


A happy team. After we got on track after searching for a clue for 30 minutes!


Another portion of the trail ... through the farms


Through the farms, cattle. We had some really good apples courtesy some a kind couple.


And finally, some gyan, and Relak Singh (bad one, I know .... for those who dint get it ... relaxing)

Mountain delight ... Part 1 (On the road)

Bhimtal ... a beautiful lake nested in the Kumaon range of the Himalayas. I have never seen a lake at such heights!


On the road ... in the Shivalik hills. This is a small range that begins when the Great Indian Plains end somewhere near Haldwani.


A great view of the begining ofGreat Indian Plains. Taken from the Shivalik hills


Apple trees. plenty of them. As Bhobe said, "There is a different taste to it when you pluck it off the tree!" The apples of this place truly have a different taste to it. They are much more juicy, have a different aroma, are slighlty green (well almost green in fact) in colour and leave 'that lingering taste' in your mouth...


And not so interesting things (compared to the scenery around!) The bus. A source of unending entertainment; be it boisterous and off tune Bollywood numbers, a negotiating Jis Jose, a few German songs, some antakshari, puke, vodka, inane jokes, dedications, a pretty girl, stop-overs, takeovers, Pranesh 'mapping' traffic routes to optimum flows, blah, blah...

Mukteshwar ... One trip I'll always remember ...

Last weekend I visited Mukteshwar in Nainital. It's a beautiful place. And I have to say, Uttaranchal is by far one of the most picturesque states that I have seen in India. I have always liked the mountains (though I have got tired of seeing the Sahyadris and the Western Ghats) and the Himalayas are just amazing.

We were a group of 28 students enrolled for the course called 'Leadership and Managerial Effectiveness'. (One of the better courses at MDI, which has helped me understand myself and people around me!). Mukteshwar was part of the course. Outbound Training, is a method of developing the right brain. Over years and years of structured analytical training in school and college, our right brain which senses emotion, feeling, and our subconcious does not develop to the extent that the left brain has. It is very evident today when we see people with excellent analytical skills but severely lack the ability to connect with people, influence them, work in teams, understand the world around them etc. OBT is a step in that direction.

Anyways, here are the pics. Will split it up into different posts ...

Hiring season!

Yesterday was a long day. Primarily because I had got up really early in my mission to rationalise my waking and sleeping hours. Secondly, because Unnati and Monetrix both had their interviews for the incoming junior teams. However, not all was lost coz at the end of the day I realised that I actually liked interviewing people.

I remember numerous times when I was on the disadvantaged side of the hallowed table; nervous, sweaty and wondering whether the interviewer would devour me. But shifting sides to the advantaged side ;) suddenly brings in a lot of clarity. You can see the trembling hands, the nervous voice, etc; not that I'm sadist or anything, just that you suddenly feel a quantum leap in your observational skills.

I think there are somethings we need to keep in mind when we are evaluating people. One, make the candidate comfortable. A lot more can be discussed and much more fruitfully at that when the candidate is in his natural state. I dislike stress interviews. They put people on the backfoot, make them defensive and in the end nothing is achieved. The use of stress interviews may seem to counter my view, but still i'd like to stick to my point.

Two, treat people with respect. I guess this is plain manners.

Three, make a plan of what you want to test and test those aspects first.

On a personal level, taking an interview gives you a first hand experience of the errors that are most commonly committed. Its a good way to prepare for an interview. Also, very very surprisingly I discovered the need to be well dressed. Shabby dressing sticks out like a sore thumb. Grooming is important too. Uncombed hair, unpolished shoes, etc. definitely make a difference, it builds a positive perception of the candidate; atleast when the differentiating factor between a group is low.

Pretty interesting thought this. As I have mentioned time and again, it reinforces my beliefs about the importance of people and the need to manage relationships. Guess thats the biggest learning that I have got from this place so far.

Meaningless numbers

The first year verdict has been passed. I have secured a cumulative grade point average which classifies my performance as between 'fair' to 'good'. well it could have been between 'good' and 'very good' had the Operations Management (OM) faculty set his papers in a way befitting a management degree examination. Not that I'm cribbing about my grades. Agreed I didn't put in the effort that merited something better, but that was primarily because I had done the stuff before in engineering. Plus too much of math bugs me. All the questions in the OM paper were based on math. It might as well have been a paper on machine design. No decision taking. No practical application of concepts.

So I received a 'C-' in OM for my lack of interest and apathy towards the kind of learning. It's literally like rubbing salt in open wounds considering the fact that I'm a Mechanical engineer with a year of experience on the Siemens shop floor. Does it in any way undermine my capacities or skills as an Ops guy? I dont think so. Does it in any way say that the guy / gal at the top of the class in OM is a genius at Ops? Again I dont think so. If I present any of the top 10 rankers in OM with a shop floor problem, to be solved in a dusty environment at temperatures of 40+ degrees, with a union rep over his shoulder, workers at his heels and a boss on his head will he get an 'A+'? Having been there and done that, I may or may not get an A+ but will definitely not land at C-.

Grades like these are used to rank students. Many people actually use these numbers as a measure of ones worth. Though not explicitly stated, phrases in employment ads like 'exceptional academic record' make you believe otherwise. End result? You have to prove yourself more than what is required on the job, all because of some meaningless numbers. Crazy world this....

Stud boy Verghese

Pradeep Verghese (my roomie) is a stud. Let me start by giving you the context.

We have a visiting professor; lets call him TPG; who teaches a course called 'International Corporate Finance'. Since he is a visiting faculty he can take classes only on Saturdays and Sundays. And so, we have back to back classes either on Saturday mornings or Sunday mornings depending on the workload Mr. TPG has the night before.

Now TPG has a funny accent and he rambles on and on. Listening to him for 90 minutes (the normal lecture duration) is acceptable. But even making an effort to sustain the drone for 180 minutes is asking too much. It doesnt help matters that its the weekend and that its 8:30AM, with most probably a hangover from tasting spirits the previous night. (Our lucky friends who do not have lectures on weekends are the culprits who entice us). In short, the weekend lectures are dreaded. We consider the weekend sacred because its the only day on which you have the liberty to get up and walk for lunch.

Now the interesting part. Over the past one and half month Verghese who sleeps for an average of 12 hours a day, has been getting up early on Saturday mornings and attending TPG lectures. Its a different thing that he leaves after roughly 45 minutes and asks the benevolent class representative to mark him present for the day. He 'lost' his reading and study material on the very first day of the term, but that din't stop him. After all currency futures and hedging strategies were his areas of interest once upon a time. He even appeared for a coupla tests.

A few days back, the Dean sent his ritual e-mail reminding students to submit their feedback for the mid-term. Yesterday Verghese submitted his feedback for all courses that he signed up for, except International Corporate Finance (ICF). He was told that he has not signed up for the course.

Realisation then dawned that he forgot which electives he had signed up for and 'thought' that he had registered for ICF. Also, he did not receive any material from the office, but 'thought' that he lost it. Such 'dedication' to the cause of academics will go down in the annals of history of MDI. Pradeep Verghese, tusi great ho! *bow*

The Bald and the beautiful

UPDATE:
July 4th, 2006
Due to the possibility of a modelling assignment anytime this or the next month, I will be delaying the bald look till further notice. Hell, I forgot to factor in this ritual that the senior batch of MBA students have to undergo every year. I wouldn't want to look like a don to the recruiters who flock this place. Sorry to disappoint you folks!

I am planning to go bald. My sis has given strict warnings against it. But then what do cute 11 year old girls know about the sex appeal of bald men (read about it somewhere!) ... ;)

Jokes apart, just want to try something different. And since there is no girlfriend, wife, mistress who will threaten to leave me if I do take the step, I've decided why not? Just wait till the current crop of hair has reached its threshold length. I'll post the pics of the bald and the beautiful. ;)

Relationships

No, this is no boyfriend-girlfriend post. I am in the mood for gyaan, especially given the fact that I have some free time today and that I haven't posted regularly for quite some time. So here goes.

Business is driven by relationships. Think about it. Good relationships with customers get you loyal customers. Good relationships with bankers get you better financing options. Good relationships with suppliers eases working capital requirements. Good relationships with employees increases your productivity. You get the drift?

Sadly, almost all B-Schools in India (I dunno about B-Schools abroad) do not have a single input on how to manage relationships. There are tangential courses on Personality Development, and most are electives to the streams of Human Resources or Personnel Management. There is a course on CRM (Customer Relationship Management) but as far as my knowledge, it has been classified as an Information Management elective.

So what does that leave us with? Management graduates who are more attuned to quantitative models and methods rather than relationship builders. It does not help that the large number of MBA's we generate these days are engineers, who love to play around with math. Management unlike math is about ambiguity. As managers you got to make the right decisions from very hazy scenarios. There is no 2+2=4. No exactness. There are many soft issues which need to be taken into account.

But engineers (most of them) hate subjects on the topic of Human Resources or Organisational Behaviour. There are two schools of thought. One, the freshers who cant understand jackshit of how HR / OB concepts are applicable. Two, experienced guys who have cursed their HR Dept. all their working life. At the end of the day, walk into any class on HR / OB and you'll see bored faces. This is compounded by poor faculty in many parts of the country who cannot relate theory to practice.

There is hope though. In my interactions with fellow MBA students over the past one year I have been able to feel a latent opinion that networking is important. How to go about it, and establish strong relationships from nominal contacts is something that has yet to take off. So unless you have it as an internal attribute, you may never develop or hone your relationship management skills in a Bschool. It may take you years of being close to customers, employees, partners before you manage to establish relationships with all of them. And if I can do that over that long a period of time, even after going to a BSchool whats the point in spending time in one.

As I said earlier, think about it.

Summer gyaan

And after I'm through with it please do not come searching for me with a sawed off double barrel shotgun. Thats the precise reason why I had 'gyaan' factored in the title of this post.

Well it all started off with me getting my posting at Corporate Strategy. After going throught the strategy course in Term III, I was convinced that this was another faff job. Not to question the professors credentials, but more as an expectation gap. Well thats how I started off, with faff, in the first review due April end. Shockingly, the guide shot it down and thankfully, he dint castrate me. We have been so used to the method of strategising in cases without knowning the context of the situation that we have become champions at rattling arbit fundaes on comparitive advantage, co-operative strategies, Porter's five forces, Red & Blue oceans, BCG matrix, etc. What happenend at ABG was different.

After the April review, I was urged to start reading history. Yes, history. So for a week all I did was read the stories of the industry I was working on. After that I had a fair idea of how the industry had moved over the years. In short, I got into the context of my work. The project suddenly came alive when I understood the background of work and the future implications of my work. History provided the base to understand competitor actions, which in turn helped to understand the motivations behind those actions, which finally led to isolation of their strengths and crytalised into the way they evaluate alternatives (which is what strategy is all about). Then of course you got to validate your hypothesis (as to how a competitor evaluates alternatives) by looking at their annual reports, law cases, analyst reports, etc. (The finance part!)

By May end, I was done. Better still, I was able to strategize for the business unit I was working on. I divided the critical factors for alternative evaluation into three main categories and devised a model. The model was short and to the point. It captured everything I wanted to say, each category described by one word that stood for everything within it. I showed the model (just the model, without the background, context and the research) to a friend, a fellow MBA student, and a pretty decent one at that. Guess what he told me? "What gas man! What the hell does this mean?" I presented the same thing to my Dept. Head. This time after updating them on the background, context, and the research analysis. "Excellent" was the reaction.

The point I want to make is this. In B-Schools we are presented with the tip of the iceberg. This may not neccesarily be the fault of the case writer, professor or the student. Companies are wary of revealing much especially in a market as competitive as today. But we can surely do a little better with some background information; and I'm not talking of the little paragraph before the actual case begins. I'm talking of the stories of the industry. What caused the change, why did the industry move the way it did, how did they evaluate their alternatives, and so on. Without it, strategy is and will always be faff.

I'm Back

Im Back! *Saying it with the syle of Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire* ;)

Almost been 3 weeks since I made a post. The last days of the month of May were spent making presentations to the top brass at The Aditya Birla Group. From first impressions they seemed to like my work. And I also like the place. The more I think of it, it seems the only place where I can get a profile of my choice, rather than the analytics / MoFS (Marketing of Financial Services) / etc. types of profiles that are on offer here.

We interns had a great time at Gyanodaya making our presentations to HR, enjoying the good food, the fellowship with other interns and last of all the party at COs at Lower Parel. That was the grand way we brought the summers to an end.

A small vacation to Mangalore recharged my batteries. Especially the travelling. The Matsyagandha express chugs through the picturesque Konkan and the advent of the monsoon the week before made the place look even more beautiful. It had been 3 years since I had been to Mangalore and the place surely has changed. For one, many people understand Hindi which is a HUGE improvement from the days when I visited Mangalore as a kid. Roads have improved in many places. And though I didn't visit the city I'm told that much has changed there too.

Come the 11th and it was rush-back-to-college time. Unfortunately, I fell sick. Not one of the best ways to start the new academic year. Travelled by Kingfisher this time. A relief from the Dhakkan days. No waiting at the airport, no delay in takeoff, no hassles, all the women staff smile in this half flirting way that makes you smile back and keep smiling long after you've they've seen you off. A good flight. My first good flight.

Well thats the story so far. Watch this space for more updates!

The innovation that is 'Orkut'

There was a spam doing the rounds recently of how Mr Orkut Buyukkokten, the coder from Stanford was making money at the speed of light. The mail stated that whenever you send a friend reqest, scrap, add a person as a fan, etc etc Mr. Orkut makes money. The objective of this post is not to quantify the cash that Orkut is making. (Some say he may be the richest man on the planet in a few years. Ironically his office is in the 'Gates' building.) The objective here is to celebrate the innovation that is orkut.

Orkut.com is a website that helps you to get in touch with other people. It is much more effective than other sites since to become a member of the network you need to get an invite from an existing member of the network. Thus making it difficult for bots to enter. The website helps people stay in touch, meet old friends, and last of all make new friends. When one becomes a member, you fill up a e-form that takes a lot of data like hobbies, interests, demographics, etc.

So whats so great? Well since the network is 'trusted' because of the invite barrier, you get more reliable people and hence reliable data. As I write this, orkut has an estimated 20 million strong membership and believe me its addictive. Who would not like to get in touch with old friends. Its one of the most difficult things to let go when you change locations. So its safe to assume that a huge percentage, somewhere around 70-80% will be active. That makes 16 million people chatting up, flirting, and most important giving valuable information about themselves. Which marketer would not give her / his left b00b / b0ll for such information. At the same time the members enjoy, they have come in touch with their long lost friends. Its a win-win situation. Which is what makes orkut such a great innovation. I wouldn't be sursprised if Mr. Buyukkokten becomes the richest man on the planet or is getting those big bucks. He might be selling the data to Market Research firms. (Would have loved to put the mail here too, but sadly I dont have a copy. Anyone reading this please mail it to me at xcesstorque [at] yahoo [dot] com.)

However there is a caveat. Orkut for all its 20 million members is mainly popular in India, Pakistan and Brazil. But considering the way it is spreading it will take little time to expand into emerging markets like South East Asia, Eastern Europe, and the other parts of South America & Latin America. Also, orkut is popular among the age group of 15 - 30. Yes it could take a quite a few years before the current crowd ages and we have representation from all age groups. People might also argue that only the internet savvy are profiled. Ah well yes .. thats a valid point. I guess customer profiling can be done only for this section of society. However in the future almost everything will be online. Almost all middle class kids today have email ids and orkut is growing at a frentic speed. Since I joined orkut (somewhere around October 2005) till date, membership has grown from some 6-8 million to the 20 million odd members in just 6-7 months.

So marketers here lies your potential goldmine. All your fundas of segmenting, targeting, positioning, etc can be got in a jiffy. The worlds largest database of what customers want! Phew and to think it all happened because a geek mixed his interests of social networking and coding.

PS: While researching for this post, I came across a link as to why Google bought orkut. Read it, its interesting!

My orkut profile is here.