Notes: FREE TRIAL

Rahul → Samarth → Swati → Sonal → Yogesh / File

01-01-07

Virtual Job Fair (VJF)

· IIT is the first step towards VJF

· IIM will be the next (Instant Messaging)

· Next, we will add “Voice” (Telephone/Sound)

· Next, we will add “Sight” (Video-Interview)

· On “Submit Resume” we will provide for candidate’s photo/video-clip

· On “Post Job” we will provide for recruiter-companies’ photo/video-clips

· Finally, we will reach VJF

(See enclosed note/concept-note)

· With IIT we have made a good beginning – but it is just that – a “Beginning”

· We will not rest with IIT. We must keep pushing the boundaries. We must re-write the rules of online recruitment. We must lead the others.

(Signature)

01/01/07

Jan 01, 2007

PHYSICAL (ON-GROUND) JOB FAIR

Logic – Rules – Conditions – Constraints

· Concept

Provide a platform for employers and jobseekers to meet

Speed up the recruitment process (Walk-in)

· Organizer

o a Jobsite (e.g. Times Jobs/Monster etc.)

o a Recruitment Agency

o a Newspaper

· Revenue Model

Organizer charges employers to put up stalls. May also charge jobseekers.

· Who can participate?

o Any employer who “books” a stall.

o As far as jobseekers are concerned, anybody can Walk-In.

o VIRTUAL (ON-LINE) JOB FAIR

· Concept

Same as in case of Physical Fair

· Organizer

IndiaRecruiters.net

· Revenue Model

Through Pay-Per-Click (on keywords) using IIT/IIM/Video-Interviewing

· Who can participate?

Only those corporates who are subscribers of IndiaRecruiters.net (i.e. registered corporates, including Recruitment Agencies)

As far as Management Institutes are concerned, we will NOT allow them to participate directly. (Their inclusion will destroy VJF – Virtual Job Fair)

· Monitor

· We will allow them to see/view/monitor any VJF (shadow technique).

· Customers (corporates) will remain our exclusive customers.

· We must guard against our corporates approaching IIT/IIM directly for conducting Video-

Interviews. We must act as final gatekeepers. We must have a long-term collaboration with

IIT/IIM.

· (My own MS Event at University of Kolkata) – Rehearsal.

PHYSICAL JOB FAIR

➤ What about publicity?

Organisers usually advertise in print media several times before the event.

➤ How much physical space can an employer book?

Suppose sizes of ‘stalls’ are fixed (two-three sizes). The size of the stall will determine:

How many interview-cabins can be there
How much waiting area
Admin/Reception

Size of the hall/venue will decide how many stalls can be there and therefore how many employers can participate in one event.

VIRTUAL JOB FAIR

➤ What about publicity?

VJF will make it unique/time-bound ‘event’.
It will be a 24x7 ongoing online process where both employers and candidates log-in & log-out at their convenience.
Any VJF homepage/publicity page (portal, agency) should enable the visitor every day to ‘see’ the logos/names of participating employers/vacancies/their online interviewing schedules.
At the appointed times, the candidates can log-in individually at the interview cabin of the concerned employer and be interviewed.
Matching candidates registered.

➤ How much ‘virtual’ space can subscribers’ book?

On India Recruiter, there will be no limit to the no. of interview cabins (secure work page 24x7). Each subscribing employer can have ANY no. of cabins in use now/the following week.
We may note when an employer subscribes, books for cabins X/Y/Z as per his advance (like conference room booking).
And books one (or more) cabins for immediate use (interview now), all others for FUTURE DATES (say, next week or month). Hence, he can then invite the candidates accordingly.
Obviously, in the VJF there will be no need for waiting/reception areas.

PHYSICAL JOB FAIR

➤ What about Privacy/Anonymity?

Actual process of interviewing is private, but outside the interview cabins, everybody gets to see who is being considered. There’s no privacy/confidentiality. Everybody knows that you are “job-hunting,” including your colleagues from your current company!
This is the reason physical job fairs are totally unsuitable for experienced professionals (4–5 years’ experience) who are currently already employed.
The situation gets worse if your own current employer is one of the participants.

➡ Hence, physical job fairs attract mostly the FRESH graduates.

VIRTUAL JOB FAIR

➤ What about Privacy/Anonymity?

In VJF, participating corporate employees can be always interviewing candidates. Job seekers can log in unseen, and other corporates can also see them.
Candidate’s identity/anonymity is secured as far as “who is interviewing for what” is concerned. For example, Infosys can keep interviewing candidates AND simultaneously Siemens employees participating too.
Suppose at 5:00 pm WIPRO HR logs in at VJF. “Announcement Board” shows: Wipro HR available for interviews. Simultaneously, Infosys HR might be interviewing another candidate. But Siemens will never know that Infosys HR is interviewing or which candidates.
Candidate identity is kept confidential, and companies can conduct interviews while saying.

INFOSYS | BUSINESS ANALYST

Would interview like (Now Borrowing)

so that 3 can be interviewing — like Infosys, Siemens, and Wipro’s employees — even as 5 are being seen by some employers.

As far as jobseekers are concerned: only they will decide to reveal their presence/identity to employers.
They will move around all corporate stalls, while remaining INVISIBLE all the time until they select an employer and ADD profile. The system will indicate even SENIOR executives in participation.

PHYSICAL JOB FAIR

➤ Resume

A jobseeker must carry a huge file of résumé printouts. As he walks around the stalls and comes across an interesting employer/vacancy, he will need to submit a résumé copy and “register” his desire to be interviewed.
Maybe such registration is done at the entrance of the hall, where each participating corporate has a “Registration Counter.” Or such registration might be done at the individual stalls.

VIRTUAL JOB FAIR (VJF)

➤ Resume

A candidate would log-in (Username/Password) at the MAIN ENTRANCE. This will tell his PEN/Profile (i.e., one database).
Thereafter, if he comes across an interesting corporate/vacancy in the STALL GATE, he will need to “register” his:

o USER ID

o PASSWORD

o “PROXY” (not actual résumé but data that can be securely kept in VIRTUAL environment)

He will also tick ☑ against the VACANCY for which he intends to get interviewed.
There is no need for him to submit résumé again & again. (Corp. interviewer will get to see/download list of PEN against each position/vacancy + waiting candidates).
In IIT/IIM, the Corp. Recruiter will click against the next PEN in the list and the student will be called for the interview.
In virtual interviewing, once the interviewer is ready to “see” the candidate, the following buttons will be on the profile screen:

GREEN – Jobseeker’s Profile shortlisted for interview

YELLOW – Jobseeker kept on waiting list

RED – Rejected

On candidate’s console, one of these lights will flash.

PHYSICAL JOB FAIR

➤ Travel Logistics

Only local candidates can participate.
Unlikely that out-of-town candidates will come.
Candidates not reimbursed travel expenses.

➤ Interview History

Corporates have no method/means to check whether a candidate has repeatedly appeared for interviews in the past and, if so, what was the outcome each time.

➤ Candidate Assessment

May be done promptly & also may be conveyed immediately in some cases.
However, in general, some time is taken since a candidate is seen often under multiple HR managers within the organisation.

➤ Appointment Letter

Most likely issued immediately on the spot (from a computer template).

VIRTUAL JOB FAIR (VJF)

➤ Travel Logistics

No restriction. Corporates & jobseekers from around the WORLD can participate, around the clock.
Neither HR managers nor jobseekers need to show up at the occasion (it all happens through VIDEO-INTERVIEWING).

➤ Interview History

· In IIT/IIM, a corporate recruiter/interviewer will be able to see/review the full past history of each candidate.

· When interviewed earlier, what vacancies did he/she appear for, what was the outcome, etc.

· He will also see interviewers’ FIT INDEX (i.e., interviewers’ feedback & impression).

· That way, the recruiter/interviewer need not repeat the same questions over and over again (saving time).

· Jobseeker also need not repeat the same answers (avoids redundancy).

· This single feature may motivate corporates to move onto VJF — at least for preliminary screening.

➤ Candidate Assessment

… can be online/immediate.
Interviewer can assess/screen/shortlist at any time, online (IIT/IIM style).

➤ Appointment Letter

Ditto.

PHYSICAL JOB FAIR

➤ Gaming Element

A one-to-one interview is quite stressful and has no gaming element in it.
But physical job fair has an ALL-PERVASIVE/GAMING element of excitement, fun, MEAL (cafeteria), excitement of roaming into classmates/friends/exchange of views/notes on who got interviewed by which company, what kind of questions were asked, and what kind of salaries were offered.

VIRTUAL JOB FAIR

➤ Gaming Element

When viewed at 10 pm, computer screen, and “process of interviewing” is quite boring, dull, tiresome, depressing, game-lacking, joyless (joy-decreasing).
In fact, no atmosphere, no excitement, no gaming. No massiveness.
The biggest fun factor that is missing in the Physical Job Fair is: thousands of groups or tens/hundreds of interviews taking place, fun could be thousands moving around in the hall. Except everything is in real-life.
Despite the presence of thousands, VJF fails to look like a MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER VIDEO GAME.
For VJF to successfully compete with PJF, it will need to look/feel/sound like a VIDEO-GAME. (Can imagine Kumbh Mela, Ganapati immersion where the audience itself creates, builds around the TENSION & EXCITEMENT.)
A videogame-sequitur link will need to recreate 2D/3D atmosphere virtually, where jobseekers can assume virtual identities (as in Second Life or similar).
Digital lights flashing, traffic, competition, scores—endless—the whole lot!

Rahul / Saurabh / Pranav

cc: Rajeev

Virtual Interview Portal (VIP)

For TCS to hire 30,000 professionals (3 purpose, mostly s/w developers) within 12 months, would mean:

Interviewing 300,000 (1:10 ratio) → i.e. 1000/day × 300 days
Getting 3,000,000 email resumes (1:100 ratio)
100 interview experts (each interviewing 10 candidates/day)
Huge physical infrastructure (Cabins, tons of resume printouts, interview experts, receptionists, transport, canteen, etc.)

➡ This is mind-boggling. HR managers must be getting nervous breakdowns!

And, it would be the same story with:

Infosys
Wipro
IBM
Accenture
Satyam
HCL
Google India (?)
Oracle India (?) … etc.

Also, consider:

Campus Interviews requiring several teams of interviewers from each recruiting company to be travelling to 400 leading campuses within a window of 4/6 weeks.
→ So, every day, on every campus, there could be 10 teams (from 10 different companies!).
Many (final year) students would appear for interviews with 4/6/10 companies during these 4/6 weeks!

➡ A literal “merry-go-round”! Keeping “placement officers” very busy and happy.

Onsite Interviews

→ These would require thousands (may be lakhs) of candidates.

 Travelling (from Kashmir to Kanyakumari) to Mumbai / Pune / Bangalore / Hyderabad etc., spending crores of rupees in tickets & millions of manhours = total waste!

 Of course, during the heydays of H1B rush, American interviewers used to conduct “telephone interviews” of Indian s/w professionals. They still do.
But the disadvantages are:

➤ Slang

Indian candidates fail to follow the US slang & end up giving no answers / wrong answers!

➤ Time

When Americans want to interview, it is sleeping time for us.

➤ Proxy

A “dumb” candidate (who has cleverly faked his email résumé in the first place) gets substituted with a hired “expert” during telephone interview.

Verification

Certificates (Birth / Edu / Salary etc.) cannot be verified over telephone.

➤ Record

Interview is generally not “taped/recorded” for subsequent reference (while preparing offer letter or during subsequent tenure with the employer company).
When a recruiter is conducting 10–15 telephonic interviews everyday, it is not possible for him to remember even the major details/impressions about each candidate.
Assessment becomes difficult unless it is taped/recorded immediately as soon as the interview gets over.
You cannot rely on memory after having interviewed 10 candidates in 6 hours!
In absence of record/transcripts, there is a possibility of:

→ genuine errors → malpractice

 If the same candidate “re-appears” for a telephonic interview after 3 months, the recruiter may not even remember having interviewed and rejected him earlier! How can anybody remember each & every one of the last 1000 candidates interviewed?

 There is a strong possibility that a candidate rejected by one recruiter gets accepted by another recruiter from the same company and for the same position!

 All that a (clever!) candidate has to do is to keep emailing his résumé again & again to the same company, even against different job ads, over a period of time.

 Ultimately the law of probability will work the candidate’s favour.

 If he’s lucky, the manager who interviewed him last time may have left the company/resigned and left.

 There are several instances like this (in big companies) where the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing!

For all the problems/shortcomings listed earlier, one solution (though not perfect) could be creating, on Global Recruiter — and on all of its partner websites — a

Virtual Interview Portal (VIP).

Brief Concept Outline

Candidates & Corporates would need to register on GR & become members to be able to use VIP.
On VIP platform, Corporates would create interview schedules for 10/15/30 days in advance.
“Schedule” will clearly indicate:

(A) Interviews-by-Invitation only Jobs
(B) Interview-by-Visual Walk-in Jobs

For (B) type of jobs/interviews, jobseekers would need to apply online.
Corporate HR managers will select those worth interviewing (virtually).

and click a link “Interview Call” somewhere on the profiles. Then a pop-up message can be sent:

Sample Message:

Dear ______,

Thank you for sending your profile for the position of ______.

Kindly appear for a VIRTUAL interview by logging into IndiaRecruiter’s Virtual Interview Portal (VIP) page.

Date: ______

Time: ______

Venue: VIP/______

Est. Interview Duration: ____ Minutes

After log-in, click on our Company Name link & enter “Venue Details” shown above.

When you do, one of our interviewers will conduct your ONLINE VIRTUAL interview using IndiaRecruiter’s online Instant Messaging (IM) software.

During interview you may be asked to upload files containing documents/images of your:

Birth Certificate
Education (Edu)
Salary (if applicable)
Photo (passport size)

If, by any chance, the candidate logs in late (say 10+ minutes), then some appropriate message will direct him to contact the Interviewer/Administrator over mobile phone, to take fresh appointment.

b) “Interview-by-Virtual Walk-In”

This type of interviews are primarily for fresh graduates and for positions like Trainees/Apprentices etc. These would be:

S/W developers
BPO staff
Sales
Retail

Mostly positions which do NOT require any prior experience.

These are VIRTUAL mirroring of physical “Walk-In” interviews, for which we see a lot of advertisements in newspapers and even on posters which simply ask candidates to WALK-IN with their resumes on mentioned Date/Time/Venue.

In these cases, a Company’s job-advt. on IndiaRecruiter would read:

Those interested, may appear for a VIRTUAL WALK-IN INTERVIEW

by logging into VIRTUAL INTERVIEW PORTAL (VIP) page of India Recruiter.

Process

Log into VIP using your User ID/Password.
In the dropdown list, click on our Company Name.
In Interview Request Box, enter:

Your PEN ( ______ )
Advt. Job Code (in which interested)

Our Administrator will display online, following instructions:
Thank You for Queuing-Up. You are allotted:

Date: ______
Time: ______
Interview Cabin No.: VIP / ______

 When you return for Virtual Interview (thru IndiaRecruiter’s VIP page), as per above instructions, please reenter

• PEN: ___________

• Job Code: ___________

• Interview Cabin No.: ___________

 Our Interviewer will conduct your VIRTUAL / ONLINE Interview using IndiaRecruiter’s Instant Messaging software (IM).

 During Interview you may be asked to upload files containing documents/images of your
• Birth Certificate

• Photo

• Edu’n ___________

• Salary slip (if applicable)

Functional Specs for VIP Software

All interviewing will be using IM Software (Google?) which is compatible with all IMs (e.g., AOL / MSN / ICQ, etc.)
Only registered Corporate Subscribers can conduct VIRTUAL Interviews. Obviously, all Jobseekers wanting to use VIP will also need to be registered on IR/CR.
Only concerned Corporate HR mgr will have access to “Record/Transcript” of any particular candidate’s interview. No other Corporate can access this.
“Record/Transcript” will be preserved for 2 years (from date of interview) and hence easily accessible to Corporate.
By entering any Candidate’s PEN No. in Corporate’s ADMIN TOOL, it should be possible for concerned HR mgr to see/review all previous interviews of this candidate with that company during last 2 years – including all past Assessment Sheets.

 Each Corporate Subscriber should be able to design & use his own UNIQUE Assessment Sheet (right-hand bottom corner). Of course, he should be able to modify/alter this sheet at any time (ADMIN tool MASTER).

 Each Corporate Subscriber should be able to create/build-up (over a period of time) his own unique QUESTION BANK (bottom left-hand corner).

He should be able to “categorise” this Question Bank Database under any category: function / topic / subject / skills / knowledge / industry / attitude / attribute etc.

 Of course, we will “aggregate” such Questions of hundreds of Corporate Subscribers (data mining) and build up our own Knowledge Base.

 We will need some ADMIN TOOL of our own, so that we can determine exact usage of VIP by each & every Corporate Subscriber and charge him predetermined fees (Rs. 100/- per candidate interviewed?).

 Corporate himself should be able to see his VIP charge debit from his own ADMIN TOOL.

 VIP page itself should be capable of handling 1,000 simultaneous interviews to begin with. S/W should be so designed that we are able to ramp up to handle 10,000 simultaneous interview sessions by addition of servers/hardware.

 We should not design/develop IM itself – only its application.

 This VIP should be capable of morphing into a VIDEO interview in … [sentence cuts off here in the image].

Shuklendu

www.OnlineJobsFair.com

We have already booked this URL

Enclosed find my drafts for

• UI
• Concept Note

• FAQ

• Process Flow Chart etc.

· A few things remain, such as

· Terms & Conditions / List of Messages

· Metatags / Counts / etc.

Which are low priority – can be done later.

· After you, Nitin, had time to study these pages, pl. list your questions (some of which may not have even occurred to me). Then, I can visit your office for discussion.

· I am sending a copy of this to my ex-IIT colleague (also ex-Remantra), Inder Sethi, who was deeply involved in creation of my earlier job-portals.

· I would like to launch this site on 15 April 2013 (3P Founders Day).

Concept of “Virtual Interview Cabins”

Any ground-based, physical facility for interviewing has limitations of space. Some big companies do have 3/4 interview cabins in their Recruitment Dept. (L&T had 3, at one time).
Sometimes, interviews for different positions are going on in different cabins.
But, occasionally, interviews for SAME position are going on simultaneously in all 3 cabins, e.g.:
Data Entry Operators
Machine Operators
Graduate Engineer Trainees etc.
When a very large number of suitable applicants have to be interviewed, in such a case, multiple “Interview Panels” are constituted.
Candidates are NOT assigned to any particular Interview Cabin / Interview Panel.
All candidates come in, register with the receptionist and wait in the waiting hall.

VIC/2

As soon as an interview gets over in any particular cabin, a panel member presses the green button on the wall, and a green light comes up above the door of that cabin, indicating it is ready to receive the next candidate.
As soon as Receptionist notices this green light (annunciator) on cabin, she directs the next (scheduled) candidate to that cabin.
Idea is:
Interview Panel’s time is the most precious resource and must not be wasted.
So, whosoever (of the scheduled) candidate is present, is pushed into the cabin (!!).
Physical cabin space is also precious. It must be used to the max. limit. It must not remain “unoccupied,” even for a minute!

But,

In a Virtual World, it is a very different situation.

VIC/3

There is no “space” constraint! Any number of VIRTUAL CABINS can be instantly “created” and “allotted” to any no. of Interviewers.
Only limitation is:
For interviewing a large no. of suitable candidates, for any given vacancy, how many interviewers can one find/assign to conduct interviews simultaneously in different VIRTUAL CABINS?
Hence, “cabins” can be created, depending upon the no. of interviewers available, at a given point of time.
Of course, if an Employer is not in a great hurry to fill up the vacancies, he can choose to spread out the interviews over a no. of days, with just one interviewer.
(Maybe, I forgot to provide for this particular scenario in my UI for allowing Interview Dates (i.e., more than one date). UI will need to be modified to take care of this).
Now, in a Virtual World, there is no receptionist to “guide” a waiting candidate to enter (say),
A cabin, or
B cabin.

VIC/4

I am sure, it is only a matter of time, before a VIRTUAL RECEPTIONIST (an AVATAR-like software) can do this efficiently.

Till such time,

Employer/Recruiter will need to “pre-assign” different Cabin Nos. to different SETS (Groups) of candidates.
Recruiter will also assign these Cabin Nos. to his own several Interviewers (if interviews have to take place simultaneously).

Example:

Interviewer: Pradip Malote

Cabin 123 → PEN 43864 (Patel)
Cabin 123 → PEN 23947 (Panchal)
Cabin 123 → PEN 84366 (Dighe)

Interviewer: Raghavendra

Cabin 463 → PEN 12124 (Ajay)
Cabin 463 → PEN 32633 (Venkat)
Cabin 463 → PEN 84934 (Shailesh)

VIC/5

Assigning / Creating “VIRTUAL CABINS”

Easiest thing (for Software) is to keep assigning the NEXT number.

Disadvantage:

After 3 years, that “NEXT” Cabin No. could well be
CABIN NO. 23,69,483
Very difficult for either Candidate or Recruiter to remember/enter in some UI, to connect up.

Alternate Method:

Let S/W create 1000 cabins, numbered 1, 2, 3 … 1000.
Out of this inventory, assign whichever number is FREE at the moment.

Obviously, out of 1000 cabins, some are bound to be free, when Recruiter is Scheduling Interview Date / Generating Interview Time Schedule (using ADD CABIN button/menu like ADD EDU. QUAL. button in Submit Resume).

Cabins are getting FREE, all the time – and getting OCCUPIED, again & again.

Virtual Employment Exchange (VEE) – What / Why / How?

Our Virtual Employment Exchange (VEE) too must make sure that we create additional revenue streams for all the intermediaries / brokers who are likely to feel threatened by our attempt to set up VEE.

Affected Parties

Job Seekers	↔	Employers / Corporates
News Papers (Loss of Revenue)
Job Sites (Subscription / Showcasing Fees – Loss of Revenue)
Placement Agencies (Placement Fees – Loss of Revenue)
Consultants (Loss of Revenue)
Counterfeiters (Loss of Revenue)
ALT. Agencies (Loss of Revenue)

Of these, Job Sites & Placement Agencies are going to feel most threatened by VEE.
So, we must create Additional Revenue Streams for both.

In my earlier notes, I have explained how to take into confidence these two key stakeholders, by showing them how they stand to make more money by joining VEE. Similarly, we must create NEW deliverables e.g., TV Channels / Mobile Apps / Web Portals / Cybercafés etc., so that we are not at the mercy (“Lock-In”) of Job Sites & Placement Agencies.

Virtual Employment Exchange (contd.)

For Resume-Search, Job Sites charge an annual subscription ranging from Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 2.6 lakh, irrespective of how many searches you conduct & how many resumes you download. For Job Posting, you pay Rs. 3,000–6,000/year (or Rs. 500/job posting).

Our Webservice will be far cheaper & there will be no year-long commitment!
Apart from Activation Charges (Rs. 5000?), we may permit subscribers to deposit as small an amount as Rs. 500 to load as “Transaction Fees.” And he pays only what he uses, on a transaction basis – i.e., pay-per-use model (instead of irreversible lock-in & upfront investment).

Therefore, our model should be able to attract many hundreds of small/medium employers who may need to advertise only 10 vacancies/year – and who just could not afford to subscribe to Job Sites.

For the individual users, the other options (subscriptions) are also very expensive & inconvenient:

Advertise in newspapers
Rely on Placement Agencies

I think our Business Model (of Webservice), will too, be touching the right chord with these thousands of small/medium companies, with our NO huge investment / NO long-term commitment / Pay-per-use value proposition.

Virtual Employment Exchange (VEE) – What / Why / How?

We too must convince the job sites to become our “licensees” (of our Webservice).
To succeed in our efforts to rope-in job sites, we would:

First need to build up a resume database of one million resumes (3P central database).
Get a few large, respectable corporates to subscribe to our Webservice, even if we have to agree to very low transaction fees.
Need to rope-in some reasonably well-known NON-TOPLISTED portals as our licensees (e.g., Rediff.com, which in last quarter earned Rs. 15 crore, i.e., Rs. 5.0 crore p.a.).
Need to start advertising campaigns with smaller job sites. Resuming quantity, they have very few corporate clients. Since their resume database is so small, we must convince them that by becoming our licensee, they would be able to sign up many, many corporate clients, since now, their corporate clients can have access to 3P’s central database of 1 million resumes!
Clients can sign up at a transaction fee as low as Rs. 500.
Once a licensee, long-term/continuous revenues are linked to the transaction fees.

Virtual Employment Exchange (VEE) – Business Logic

Our Webservice tag revolves around the concept of “selling of resumes” (Rs. 10/resume).

Any corporate subscriber of our Webservice can (upon appropriate advance payment) download any no. of resumes and do whatever he wants to do with it (including resell if he wants to!). He can give it away free to anyone if he wants to.

By giving/selling a resume, it does not disappear from our database and we can “sell” it again & again, indefinitely.

Our online “Disclaimer” will say that we take no responsibility re: its genuineness / up-to-dateness / accuracy etc.

Virtual Employment Exchange (VEE) – Piracy Concern

In our webservice it is possible for a subscriber to download one resume (by paying Rs. 10, to click on download button) and then make 100 copies – and may resell each copy for Rs. 1 apiece.

Although theoretically this is possible, the question is:

Who, and how many corporates (or Placement Agencies?) in India would want to buy thousands of resumes just because these are available for Rs. 1 apiece?

Corporates are highly unlikely to “buy” resumes unless this “buying” business is an integral part of a webservice (i.e., you can first search the resume database (millions), narrow down to a few, and then “buy”).

There is a distinct possibility of a jobsite or placement agency buying 20,000 resumes (at Rs. 1 each). After all, there are thousands of “Agencies” selling small info databases of 20,000–40,000 for a few each. And there are enough buyers at this price.

We must find a solution to such piracy! How?

Virtual Employment Exchange (VEE) – Compelling Business Model

I do not think at this stage we need to work on this. I expect corporate HR managers to download on their office PC (or home PC).

Virtual Employment Exchange (VEE) is an equally compelling idea where the “Exchange Owner” gets his cut (i.e., commission as transaction fees), no matter:

Who recruits
Whom, and
When, and
Where, and

You can only imagine a scenario where thousands of subscribers (Corporates) are annually recruiting lakhs of executives and exchanging millions of transactions… our VEE owner keeps getting paid (like NTT DoCoMo – example: DoCoMo received 950 million SMS messages EVERYDAY!).

No wonder, DoCoMo is literally minting money!

VEE (Virtual Employment Exchange)

Dated: 15/5/03

All the Rave – The Rise & Fall of Shawn Fanning’s Napster (by Joseph Menn)

This book was reviewed in Financial Times (EFE).

Based on this review, in enclosed pages, I have tried to compare:

What Napster did / did not
What we should learn from Napster story

Obviously there is a lot to learn.

And we must learn it well & translate into action. And if, in the process of implementation, we make mistakes (and we will!), let us learn from these mistakes and correct them fast.

Being able to make a quick “course correction” is possible only on the internet. On the ground, if I put up a factory to manufacture tractors (an investment Rs. 100 crores) and if tractors don’t sell, I cannot overnight convert that factory to manufacture microwave ovens! Clicks can be changed quickly – bricks cannot!

Cc: Mr. Nayle

Comparison: Napster vs. VEE

What NAPSTER did

Created a “file sharing” technology on internet.
File-sharing gave each surfer access to music that was stored on other computers that happened to be online (not necessarily logged-out).
At one time, Napster had 60 million users and trillions of bilateral exchanges (of music data), completely bypassing Napster.
Millions of songs did not reside in a single database. Users were free to contact each other directly, strike deals, and share music on their own. Napster had no direct control.

What we should do to create a VIRTUAL EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGE

We will create GPRS (Global People Resourcing System) as a Webservice.
We would try our best to ensure that our Webservice subscribers cannot exchange their resume databases amongst themselves directly – bypassing us. How?
We will encourage them to deposit / credit their own unique resumes into 3P’s central database. These resumes, being deposited, will have to be tied to unique incentives.

Napster vs VEE (contd.)

What NAPSTER did
Napster became an unlimited library of free music.

What we should do to create a VIRTUAL EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGE

#1
We are not going to give away resumes “free”!

It will be Rs. 10 for each resume downloaded from 3P’s central database.

Exceptions:

Free download up to your CREDIT-BALANCE
Unlimited no. of downloads for unlimited period of time – completely FREE – for your own resumes

Of course, this will require each “depositor’s” resume (which are all UNIQUE to begin with) to be linked to the particular subscriber who has deposited.

These provisions will encourage subscribers to deposit their own/untapped resumes into 3P’s database – in order to increase their CREDIT-BALANCE.

(I have everything to gain & nothing to lose!)

Napster vs VEE (further comparison)

What NAPSTER did

Unlimited number of songs became available to users. But who would want to download/store 5 million songs on his hard disk, just because these are freely available?
No one/single person would find time to listen to 200 songs daily, simply because unlimited are available on his hard disk!
Then there is neither any monetary gain/benefit of downloading/creating one’s own private database of millions of songs. Why would anyone go through the pain of downloading if he can access free from any number of places and whenever he feels like?

What we should do to create a VIRTUAL EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGE

We are unlikely to have “unlimited” no. of resumes in 3P’s central database, because we are not going to pay anything to anyone for helping create the central database.

No doubt, we are going to pay in kind (not in cash). (Free download equal to subscriber’s CREDIT-BALANCE). Do not mix this up with Money Credit Balance! I mean Resume Credit Balance.

And each subscriber draws from this central resume database of 3P what he wants, when he wants.
(Some free / some at Rs. 10/-), without having to worry about managing a resume database of 10/20 million of jobseekers.

Isn’t it better/cheaper to advertise job positions & let jobseekers respond? Much easier/cheaper to search 3P’s database!

Napster vs VEE (Copyright Issue)

What NAPSTER did

Violated copyrights of music companies who owned song albums.
Entire business was built on illegal pirating of copyrighted material without paying anything.

What we should do to create a VIRTUAL EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGE

Resumes residing on job sites are public domain knowledge. Jobseekers put up/upload their resumes on many/multiple sites, hoping/praying that somebody will notice it & read it/download it.
Jobseekers who send us their resumes (against project mandhan/ego/cyber issues etc.) are giving these to us of their own free volition/permit, so as to make these available to corporates.
Subscribers of our webservice, who decide to deposit certain no. of resumes into 3P’s central database, also do it willingly.

So, at no time are we violating copyrights. Our website clearly states that we only “sell” these resumes (see TERMS – let us make these explicit if required).

Napster vs VEE (Business Plan & Legality)

What NAPSTER did

Shawn Fanning (teenager who created Napster) “did not know how he could make money out of it.”
Purposely avoided developing a serious business plan/profit model.
Without paying profits that could have been legitimate, he fought against legal controls by music companies.
Since copyrights, it was not possible for Napster to generate a strong financial model to survive in the long run. Napster collapsed when injunctions against pirated music were issued.

What we should do to create a VIRTUAL EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGE

Our Business Plan & Revenue Model are very clear:

We want to make plenty of money & make it absolutely legally, without stealing/pirating anyone’s content, without violating any copyright, and by providing unmarred service to our subscribers.
We are an intermediary / we are a broker / we are a value adder (between
jobseekers/employers/subscriber-corporates).
We add value to subscribers’ recruitment process by improving quality of recruitment decisions & by increasing process productivity (speeding up selection/appointment of executives).

We provide a platform on which buyers (corporates) & sellers (jobseekers) can meet. But we only charge the buyers for use of our platform. Someday, we may charge sellers (jobseekers) too – for alerts, resume-blasting services, sending interview schedules, etc.

Resume database of 20 million, perhaps may look huge, but it may not be meaningful (not updated, many outdated resumes). We will help corporates increase their circulation/saturation by offering updated information (GAVIS).

We also create additional revenue models: cybercafés, SMS, kiosks, PCOs, etc., to help jobseekers find jobs faster.

Napster vs VEE (Copycat Threats)

What NAPSTER did

Inspired the creation of many copycat file-sharing services.

What we should do to create a VIRTUAL EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGE

When our Webservice gets launched – and grows over next few months – it is quite probable that some jobsite, or some executive search firm, or some newspaper or software company, may copy our model & try to overtake us by leveraging their strengths (e.g., existing corporate subscribers, advertising/customer base/technology reach/distribution network/existing resume database, etc.).

This should be expected and we cannot stop this from happening.

But we may get some Early Mover advantage.

How can we retain/ increase this advantage?

By adding new features/modules every week.
By getting Jobseekers & HR Managers to contribute to our Knowledge Base (keywords, functions, rules, job-descriptions, org-charts etc.) on a continuous/ongoing basis.
By turning (perceived) competitors into our network collaborators or licensees. E.g.:
• Job sites (as licensees) → Hub & spoke
• Placement agencies (as subscribers)
• Newspapers/mags (as publishers of ads)
• Cybercafes/TV Channels
• ISPs/Cellphone operators (?? as job alerts)

Napster vs VEE (Managing Threat Perception)

What NAPSTER did

The company never tied up several deals that could have helped it co-exist with the record industry.

What we should do to create a VIRTUAL EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGE

When launched, NAPSTER itself had no competitors – but Napster was destroying the record industry, who perceived Napster as a “threat,” and it was in Napster’s interest to remove this threat perception.

When we launch our Webservice:

To whom would we pose a threat?
Who, if at all, is likely to get destroyed?

As far as I can make out, in the first place, it would be job sites (monster/IndiaJobPortal/JobStreet etc.).

So, we must get them to join us/co-operate with us, instead of trying to fight us.

How can we do this?

By showing them that they can make much more money by becoming our “licensees.”
By showing them that those of them who try to opt out will get isolated & lose out!

We must give them a good deal (terms) – but it should become crystal-clear to them that they stand no chance; that they are fighting a losing battle.

This can only happen when we accumulate: