Notes: CONTENT IS THE KING

CONTENT IS THE KING

Kartavya / Abhi

cc: Nirmit / SriRam / Raju

cc: Sanjeev

Content / Content / Content

(Content is the King)

See enclosed news cuttings. I have sent you several similar cuttings earlier too.

One thing is clear.

Having invested thousands of Crores of rupees in rolling out Mobile phone services, the service providers are desperately looking for some killer-content which subscribers will pay for – and which does NOT come under the purview/jurisdiction of TRAI / TDSAT / Govt. etc.

As far as Voice-talk is concerned, it has become a commodity. Not only is it cheapest in India, worst part is, it is controlled by TRAI / TDSAT etc.!

For service providers, there is hardly any "profit" to be made in Voice-talk.

There is a cut-throat competition – and then there is the Regulator who dictates prices.

And huge bandwidths installed have pushed up “fixed costs” & consequently the “Break-even volumes” for each subscriber/service-provider, forcing round-after-round of price-cuts!

This is an absolute "LOSE / LOSE" situation for all service-providers.

Within a year, there will be a huge “shake-out / consolidation / Mergers & Acquisitions” – and only a few with deep pockets will survive.

In the meantime, ALL of them – those with deep pockets and those without – are all scrambling to get hold of:

CONTENT PROVIDERS

Who can provide them with such useful content that their subscribers will be willing to pay for – content for which they can charge fancy price without having to worry about TRAI.

This is like Drug Price Control of the pharma industry.

No drug company wants to manufacture drugs whose prices are controlled/dictated by Drug Controller (e.g., generic drugs).

They all want to manufacture only those patented drugs which are NOT covered by DPCO (Drug Price Control Order)!

Makes for obvious business logic!

Cell-phone service providers are in similar situation right now.

Either they quickly switch over a major part of their service to "non-price-controlled" services — or face closure/takeover!

This is OUR opportunity!

Millions of jobseekers are desperately looking for info on "suitable" jobs in any part of the country.

If someone gives them sharp/focused/pinpoint job/vacancy content, they would pay for it, maybe Rs. 25/month (Rs. 1 per day).

Especially if such content is delivered over a cheap device like a cellphone, as compared to a Rs. 25,000 PC and internet connection.

Surfing for jobs in cybercafés costs Rs. 15 per hour, which could add up to Rs. 200–400 per month (nearly same as mobile bill for a month).

We can deliver job search / job alert content to these 15 million cellphone subscribers (of course, first they would need to submit their resumes on RecruitGum).

But if we have to deliver this content over cell-phones, we need to tie-up with service providers.

At Rs. 30/month/subscriber (for delivering SMS job alerts — one per day), this translates into a revenue to service providers of:

13 million × 30 = Rs. 390 million/month = Rs. 39 crores/month

And this revenue is not subject to TRAI!!

I am sure we can “sell” this idea to service providers — and, in the process, earn 10% (Rs. 2–3 crores per month) from this service of “Delivering Job Alerts” as SMS.

I feel we should take up this project ON TOP PRIORITY (as far as development of software is concerned) — before Monster / Naukri gets in.

They are already delivering job alerts as email even today!

I would be surprised if this idea (of delivery via SMS) has not occurred to them so far.

We can think of giving out this as a lump-sum project to an outsider, since our own developers are going to be too busy for the next 2 months.

Let us discuss on Monday with Nimit / Sriram / Raju.

(Signed and dated: 30/08)

PROJECT HOPE

Date: 30/08/03

Page: 1

▶ Objective:

The objective of this project is to deliver meaningful / useful content to users / subscribers of Recruitguru.com

▶ Priorities:

Srl. No	Content To be Delivered	To Whom?	Over Which Devices / Media / Channels
1	Job Alert	Jobseekers	PC / Internet / email alert
2	"	"	Cell Phone / SMS alert
3	"	"	Cell Phone / MMS
4	Match-Maker Graph.	"	Cell Phone / MMS
5	"	"	PDA / Laptop (Wireless) / MMS
6	Most Wanted Graph.	"	Cell Phone / MMS

Our main thrust is on Srl #2 and I suppose we should go step-by-step.

Srl #1 is what we have already done for last several years on 3pjobs.com and therefore quite easy to replicate in .NET on Recruitguru.

Server → Recruitguru.com

▶ Platform → .NET / JAVA–J2EE

▶ Devices → Cell Phones / PDA / Wireless Computers / Ordinary Computers / TVs

▶ Telecom Technologies:

GSM / GPRS / CDMA (WLL)

▶ Content to be delivered as:

SMS / MMS (graphs on mobiles) / email (on PC) / streamers (on TVs)

▶ Databases:

SQL for .NET
Oracle for J2EE

▶ Service Providers (Cell Phones):

BSNL / MTNL
Reliance (3 million +)
Tata
Hutch / Orange
Airtel (Bharti)
Escotel (Essar)

→ Now SMS can even be received on Reliance’s Fixed Line Cordless phones, just released.

→ + Any other Service Provider for Mobiles

▶ Service Providers (TV Channel Broadcasters):

SONY
STAR
ZEE
Doordarshan
SAB

→ + Any regional TV channel broadcaster who wants to provide a “streamer” giving job-adv. related info to viewers.

→ Channel can configure what job-adv. it wants to show to its viewers.

Service Providers (Cable TV Aggregators) – MSO

IN Cable (Hinduja)
SITI Cable (Raheja)

{They may want "Streaker" to provide job-related info to their viewers.

["Configurable" job-advt]}

▶ Content Pricing:

We may give away the content "free" to some of these service-providers and to some others we will charge a fee.

(So this is first flexibility required)

Next

Even to those whom we charge something, we would need to have following flexible options:

a) Fixed lump sum Fee – Time based (M/Q/Yearly)

b) Fixed charge "per delivery"

eg:

Rs. 0.25 for each email job alert
Rs. 0.50 for each SMS job alert
Rs. 1.00 for each MMS graph
Rs. 2.00 for each MOST WANTED graph

etc. etc.

These are what we charge the service provider.

He, in turn, can:

→ give away free content, or

→ charge any amount to his subscribers.

We are least concerned with what "revenue"

Page 4

he earns from these services. Charges can be

revised periodically & can be totally different from one provider to another provider (total flexibility). Most service-providers will prefer this method.

c) Variable charge – Percentage Based

In this pricing-model, we charge a service provider a "percentage" of what he charges his subscriber.

eg:

If Reliance charges Rs. 1.00 for delivering a job-alert to its subscriber, Reliance pays us 20% (i.e. Rs. 0.20) for each job-alert delivered by our server.

So, for each type of service (i.e. each type of job-alert such as SMS/MMS etc),

our agreement with Reliance to specify the "percentage share" only. Reliance would be free to fix/re-fix its own tariff at anytime (—as long as it’s not "ZERO"!)

Of course, in this case, Reliance would need to reveal to us exactly HOW MUCH it earned from each of these services. Then only "our share" can be computed, using the "percentage".

I feel, most service-providers would be reluctant to reveal their "Earnings" to us!

...In any case, our “Delivery & Accounting” software should provide for all 3 options for each type of “content-delivery”. On internet, the name of the (selling) GAME is:

MASS - CUSTOMIZATION

You must be ready to offer what a customer wants!

And should a customer realise after a few weeks/months that he made a wrong choice, we (i.e. our software) must be ready to allow him to switch-over to a different “Tariff-plan”, at a short notice.

▶ PREPAID vs. POSTPAID

On ReemitGuru, our services, GuruMine & GuruSearch are both PREPAID.

As far as delivery of “Job Alerts” is concerned, there too, we would like to adopt the PREPAID model, if possible.

But, big question is:

▶ Will Reliance / Tata / Bharti pay us in advance?

I doubt very much.

Even though they are desperately searching for “Revenue-generating content”, they will be most unwilling to pay us in advance for X or Y number of “job-alerts” to be delivered

(even though, 70% of mobile subscribers in India are on PREPAID mode – vs. 20% elsewhere in the world!).

So, our software has to have flexibility for both PREPAID as well as POSTPAID.

There is a possibility that some of the smaller / regional service-providers may be willing to pay in advance – especially if they feel that offering “job-alert” as an SMS/MMS could help them increase their subscriber base.

With over 50 million unemployed graduates in the country, this could be a reasonable assumption!

Especially if rural / hinterland subscribers (who don’t have access to Times of India, Hindu, or even internet connection) get to know what kind of jobs are available in big cities, then there is a very good chance that they would WANT such a service.

Many unemployed graduates may not have much use of a cellphone as far as voice-talk is concerned, but they would become a subscriber of that particular service-provider, who sends him a:

DAILY JOB-ALERT!

Hence service provider who does not offer our content will lose out.

It will lose "market-share" to competitors! Terrible thought!!

Even, if we have to offer “JobAlert” service as a POSTPAID service (to the likes of Reliance / Tata / Bharti), the redeeming feature is that these nos. do not run into thousands or even hundreds! Maxm 20 / 30 maybe.

While delivering “job-alert” content, we are not in the “Retail Business”, we are in the “Wholesale Business”!

See below:

Diagram Summary:

Aggregation Layer

Naukri
Monster
JobsAhead
JobStreet
Jobsa1

↓ Jobs

ReemitGuru.com

↓

Content Value-Enhancer & Customization Mechanism

Content Delivery Channels

From ReemitGuru →

Reliance
Tata
Bharti

↓ Customized Job Alerts → For Jobseekers

Star TV
Zee TV
Sony
InCable

15 million cell-phone subscribers

80 million total TV out of which 42 million are CABLE TV! (With set-top boxes coming in)

Some broadcaster may even want to start a “JOBS” only channel – 24 hours only

(If somebody can supply the content!) – We can ₹50/month for this channel (would attract MILLIONS).

cc: Nirmit

cc: Rajesh/Ram

cc: Krutarth/Atul

Ref: 26/09/03

done

Alarm Bells Ringing At BSNL

As Net Profit Plummets 75%

Provisional figures show bottom line down to Rs 1,500 crore from Rs 6,312 crore last year; revenue up marginally at Rs 26,000 crore

Pay channel prices will crash: Industry

Sanjeev — 26/09/03

Marketing Strategies — Pricing

In today’s “Strategist”, Mukesh Ambani is quoted as: “I would rather have 1 million subscribers paying me a small amount daily than only 3 power plants.”

To take a fixed landline today, you need to deposit Rs 3,000 which is 2 years’ profit at Rs 1500.

Within next 18 months (Mar 2005), same BSNL will have more International calls than any service provider – breaking VSNL’s monopoly of 50 years!

So, next, VSNL’s market share (of IDD) which is 100% will come down to 10%. More bandwidth has been introduced in India, when 4 years ago, it cost Rs 15/- per minute for an international call.

The same will now become free!!

And what CAS/set-top-box will do to pay TV channels, Webzines will do to Monster/Naukri/JobsAhead!

Kartavya — 29/09/03

done

All Marwari businessmen use this system of accounts. G.D. Birla & his successors raised it to the level of a Management principle.

Head of each Birla Group gets a phone call from all of his Business Heads, EVERY EVENING, telling him:

(Earnings for the day) – (Expenses for the day) = (Gross Profit for the day)

This figure is known as “Pasta”.

Just 3 figures!

And that is all that the head Birla wants to know – of course daily – whether that evening he is sitting in his Mumbai residence or in a Manhattan hotel. I suppose soon they will get these figures while flying also!

As far as Recruiting is concerned, I would like to see enclosed translation on my PC every evening. These are to be posted on an online client base. To finish this, our team will need to create some set of “Executive Statements”.

cc: Nirmit

cc: Sanjeev

Abhi

cc: Kartavya

cc: Nirmit

done

Aug. 13, 2003

Pl. see enclosed draft email

The Launch

We should send it out to those who have registered, latest by Aug. 20. Then, on Aug. 27, you should phone each person and confirm that he has received his password / User ID. If not, email again.

Tell them

► By end Sept., it will be possible for them to see our TARIFF-CARD online & decide re: permanent subscription. In any case, it will be a fraction of that charged by Monster/Naukri etc. as lump sum downpayment (upfront) irrespective of how frequently they are going to use Resume-search.

► There will be provision for any no. of Users – but they have to pay extra for each user.

By mid-Sept., we must also ensure to upload FAQs.

Draft of email to be sent to those who have registered for Free trial

Dear [Name],

The Launch.

Thank you for registering for free trial on

www.Recruitguru.com

Our pay-for-use recruitment webservice (based on .NET technology) will be launched on Aug. 23, 2003.

During next 30 days, you are welcome to utilise this webservice as much as you wish, absolutely FREE and without any obligation to become a permanent subscriber.

To login, use your following:

Password: [ ]

User ID: [ ]

Permanent Customer No. (PCN): [ ]

The most important webservices are:

► Create your own PRIVATE/SECURE resume database (by converting plain email resumes, using GuruMine)

► Search your own database & shortlist candidates & send them emails (using GuruSearch)

► Search Recruitguru’s public database of resumes – and download as many as you wish (using GuruSearch)

For GuruSearch to give good results, it is obvious that the resume database has to be fairly large. I would say at least 5000 resumes.

This is no problem with Recruitguru’s online resume database of more than 60,000 resumes.

But you could face some “search-problems” if you are conducting a search on your own private/secure database, which is quite small.

Hence I recommend that first of all you “convert” as many of your own plain email resumes as you can.

The larger the number, the better the results while searching.

And you do not have to convert one resume at a time!

You can process them (convert) in a batch of 500/2000/5000 at one go! Just upload the batch, start the extraction and disconnect. Carry on with your other pressing assignments. While you are busy with other offline work, our Server will keep working for you.

When you reconnect/return after a few hours, the job would be done and you will be able to see batchwise statistics.

If you face any problems, just send me an email (abhi@recruitguru.com) or phone me on my mobile no. 98250-5802. Please do not hesitate.

Your immediate/valuable feedback will help us in improving our service.

With kind regards,

Abhinandan

Nirmit

SriRam

Raju

done

Hooking Corporates for FREE TRIAL on Recruitguru.com

Best place to start is with our own past/existing clients: out of these, we should get 30/40 (Big daddys) to register online – and quickly.

The moment they submit online Registration-form, their names will appear on a page called “List of Corporates registered for Free Trial.”

Seeing names of reputed/large corporates would encourage thousands of others (small/medium companies) to whom we will be sending out mass emails to register.

Enclosed find draft e-mail (or should it be a personally signed, typed letter printed – individual letters?) that Consultants may send out to the Clients they (each) are currently handling or has handled in the past.

— Unless you wish to divide list amongst 3 of you. I have asked Ashutosh to compile the list.

cc: Ashutosh

cc: Abhi – Inder

Kartavya (for follow-up)

Reena

done

Broadband Connection

► You told me that you were ready with a “quote” from DSL & that you & Abhi have discussed it with Nirmit.

► You also said that from the moment we release our order, DSL will take 2 weeks to connect.

► I understand decision is to continue with existing 64 kbps line in existing office & have new 128 kbps line at the new office – where Tech team will move.

► We are likely to take possession of a 5th floor flat in the Opposite building by next Tuesday (8th). Then it may also take 2 weeks to break some walls/registry & fix power to LAN cables for wall-mounted tables, fix workstations, fix a/c etc. That takes us to 23rd.

► Please coordinate with all concerned (including your Administrator & Interior Designer) to ensure that all of above-mentioned jobs including laying 128 kbps line are completed by 23rd. Actual shifting must take place on 26th/27th/1st.

cc: Nirmit

WEB-SERVICE PROVISIONING

30 June 2003

WEB SERVICE PROVISIONING

When we adopt a “pre-paid, pay-per-use” model for our webservice, we are accepting a legal liability to our clients, to deliver “X” amount/value of “Services” (measured in, no. of transactions x tariff rate).

It is nice to have a “negative customer outstanding /a negative working capital, but this model carries responsibilities / liabilities.

On our balance sheet, “Cash Inflow” & “Income” are two different things. “Income” is only the services actually delivered, at any point of time.

Cash Inflow-Services delivered =Balance Liabilities.

Please read enclosed notes for implementation.

All of these must be done in V.I.O> itself.

Never mess around with your financial matters.

Be crystal clear / transparent from day one!

SUMMARY TABULATIONS

Temporary Registration for FREE TRAIL

1	2	3	4	5	6
Sr. No.	Company Name	City	Executive Name	Executive Designation	Date Register
					Chronologically

For placement Agencies, this date will be the date on which, they send us their (EMAIL) ACCEPTANCE FORM for our BARTER SCHEME.

Please ensure that whatever data/fields are required to be filled-in for

“FREE TRAIL” FORM

Are also incorporated in the

“BARTER ACCEPTANCE” FORM

We have decided to treat every BARTER ACCEPTOR as an “Early Adopter” and automatically show his name on “List of Early Adopters” page.

Column’s 1, 2 & 3 can be made visible to all VISITORS to our website.

Column’s 4,5 & 6 only we can see

Statistics (FREE TRIAL)

We would need to know following fig’s.

- How many joined

- How many completed “Free Trail”

- Out of those, who completed “Free Trial”,

· How many converted to “Regular subscriber’

· How many “backed –out” altogether after trial.

(We need to know the “yield %”). We need to create an ongoing separate database of companies which backed out after free trial, so that we can launch an email campaign to “convince” them & get feedback from them re: “Why”?

And we need to get this info for

· Any day (of any month)

· Any month (of any year)

· Cumulative (within a month)

· Cumulative (within a year)

After first month (viz: Sept.), both, “Free Trial” registrations and “Regular” registrations, would be taking place simultaneously, every day.

So, we must have similar 2 graphs for “Regular Registrations” also.

FINANCIAL SCREENS

Data picked-up from free Trial Form				Data picked up from Regular regi. form		Asutosh to enter this column upon receipt of cheque/DD
Sr, No.	Company Name	Free Trial Registration		If became Regular Subscriber
		Start Date	End Date	Cheque/DD No. & date	Amount Rs.	Asutosh created on date

Money comes in only when companies who have registered for FREE TRIAL, become regular subscribers, at the end of the trial (or even before 30 days are over), by sending chaque/DD & entering these details (check No/DD No. / Date Amount/bank drawn on etc.) in the

Regular Registration Form

From these details, a tabulation, as shown on P=3, must get automatically generated, as soon as a corporate fills-up the regular Registration form only the last column will remain blank, until Asutosh received the cheque/DD thru courier.

When he does using his password, he will access. This tabulation & enter the “date” in last column.

But the tabulation will also be accessible to kartayvya / Abhi / HCP / NHP who can, look-up & find out at a glance what “amount” of payments are dispatched / in pipe-line but still not received.

If it is more than 7 days, since dispatch of cheque / DD / by corporate (we insist thru courier),then Abhi can/must pick-up phone & talk to the client, saying we have not received the cheque so far! He should decide, based on clients feedback, whether to allow client to continue to use our webservice or to suspend it temporarily & send an email to client accordingly.

“Overall” subscription amount to be broken –up as

- Activation Charges – Rs. 5000/- per Member corporate

- No. of Licenses charges – Rs. 1000/- per person authorized

- Transition Charges – Whatever amt Member chooses to pay

From total of “actual transactions” carried-out by all members, in a given month, we can arrive at,

“Balance value of Transaction services charge”

Remaining to the credit of :

· A particular Subscriber:

This is what a particular subscriber would like to see-as a monthly tabulation:

· All subscribers put together:

This is what we would like to see at any point of time, in a graphical manner.

For us this “Balance Amt” represents the “value of Services” yet to be delivered by us.

It (this amount) is, kind of a “Liability of the company.

(Cash Inflow – value of services delivered)

= Balance liability of company

We should be able to see/view this for any particular customer or for all customers put together

AND

As on any date.

WOW (Weave Omnipresent Web)

21 June 2003

Kartavya /Abhi,

WOW (Weave Omnipresent Web)

Enclosed find our game plan to start a Tsunami / an Avalanche.

The main characters in this game plan are:

· The jobseekers (-and their resumes)

· The corporate (-and their Job advts)

· The placement/Agencies (-and their resume databases)

· Media/communication Channels (-and their capability to quickly deliver “contents” to millions

· Jobsites (including recruit Guru) (-and their matchmaking software which generates & delivers job alerts to candidates) Also deliver resumes to corporate against apply online.

In enclosed Pg.#2, I have arranged our various “Projects” in a tabulated manner and in the sequence in which, each project must be launched.

The idea is that as each project progresses, the “DESIRED OUTPUT” from that project, becomes the “INPUT” for the next one.

This must generate waves-after-waves and continuously gather more-and-more strength, until it becomes.

· Unstoppable

· Omnipresent

We must weave a wonderful web (www), from which, none can escape

- Neither jobseekers

- Nor employers

- Nor intermediaries (i.e jobsites & placement agencies)

- Nor media/communication channels (i.e newspapers /TV’s /Mobile operators/cable operators/cybercafés etc.)

By interesting all the above –mentioned players into one big network, the value of the integrated network, goes up in geometric proportions. The more the nodes (no. of players) on the networks, the higher its utility.

It is our task to ensure that, by timely execution of all these projects, we increase the “utility of our network (kal-chakra?). So much that, those who choose to remain outside, suffer a terrific.

COMPETITIVE DIS-ADVANTAGE!

So much so, that they have no option but to subscribe to the network!

I want to repeat here that these projects/initiatives are an integral part of our recruitguru webservice. These projects are “inseparable” from recruitguru. WOW is monolithic in nature. If we try to take-out/remove one element, entire network breaks down. So the entire tech-team must work as “One” for implementing these projects.

SriRam

Raju

Nirmit

Kartavya

Abhi

Inder

Separating the Siamese Twins

In the next 2/3 days, Abhi will conduct the surgery and separate our Resume Database as shown in enclosed sheet.

This “operation” has become both important as well as urgent. If not carried out soon, serious complications can arise. Considering that there is a fundamental difference between the Business Model & Revenue Model of:

- Executive Search business

- Webservice business

Headhunting is all about—

Very Senior Executives / Senior assignments / Specific client / Confidentiality / 25% search fees etc. etc.

Webservice is all about—

(Relatively) Junior executives / Fresh Graduates / Public resumes freely accessed by all interested customers / Online Resume Search / Rs. 10 per download of each resume / Repeat sale of same resume (like Music CD Online).

Nirmit

SriRam

Raju

Kartavya

done

“Creating a Sense of Urgency”

Enclosed pl. find a copy of this chapter taken from Tom Peters’ book

THRIVING ON CHAOS.

Although written 16 years ago, the fundamentals (of doing business / of success) hold equally valid today.

If anything, during these 16 years—

► Competition has increased many-fold & become cut-throat.

► The speed with which businesses must develop & implement new strategies in order to survive, has gone up tremendously.

No wonder, today’s Eco Times reports that employment in organised sector in India has gone down for the FIFTH consecutive year and Software Companies have started trimming manpower costs!

WEB SERVICE PRICING

12 April 2003

Kartavya/Abhi,

WEB SERVICE PRICING

· Enclosed find my proposal for “Web service Tariffs”

· While suggesting /recommending these, I have broadly followed following guidelines/principles :

1. Pre-paid System

2. Pay-per use

3. There is no “free lunch” in the world!

4. Dot-coms came to grief because they gave away precious “content” free! It had cost them millions to create that content & those software’s/search –engines.

5. Once users get used to getting anything free, they resist when they are asked to pay for the same at a later date.

6. Users have no “respect/Value” for anything that is given away free! They think, it must be a useless product? service!

In fact, there are any no of examples in business-world that “Sales” jumped when “selling-price” was raised! “Perceived value” of that product/service went-up!

If it is expensive, it has got to be good!.

Same product in an up-market shop, sells at 10 times the price at which it is sold in a down-market shop.

7. Every mouse click makes our server to “work & deliver”. It imposes work-load on server & server delivers “SERVICE”. Subscriber must pay for that service.

8. If we were to ask a subscriber to pay Rs. 500/- per resume (all processes included) then he may not even subscriber!

But when same Rs. 500/- is broken-up into 100 clicks @ Rs. 5/- each, he would not even notice/care to count & add –up.

9. In any case, there cannot be any fixed no. of “Transactions (mouse-clicks) PER resume. For a given resumes, some transaction (eg: email) may happen 10 times, whereas some other (eg: edit) may happen only once.

10. No subscriber is going to look-up the “TARIFF TABLE” first before he clicks. He will, most likely look it up once in the beginning & that forgets all about it. So, what we should do is that every time we add a new (transaction) button –and corresponding tariff – we simply edit/update the tariff-table as follows:

Sr. No.	Transaction	Name of Button	Tariff	Date activated

Every time a new button is added, we just send out an email to all subscribers, saying that a new feature has been added to the “Tariff Table” which they should look-up.

11. In V 1,0 the Tariff Table will be standard/ uniform for all subscribers. From V 2.0 or V 3.0, the Tariff Table may be unique for each subscriber.

In such a unique /bi lateral, arrangement/agreement, we must get from each subscriber, his unequivocal / undisputed “Acceptance” of the tariff, BEFORE we activate his service.

This is a must-otherwise we will have all kinds of disputes.

To overcome this problem, at the button of the TARIFF TABLE, let us provide a button.

This (requirement on part of the subscriber) should from an integral part of

ACTIVATION INSTRUCTIONS

Every time a new button is added, it should get inserted in RED & subscriber must be asked read & click SUBMIT, once more. When he does, RED turns to normal black & a message flashes:

Reactivated/you may now use the service.

If a new button is added but subscriber, for some reason, fails to lookup Tariff Table once more & click on SUBMIT once more, and then clicking of that new button should flash following message.

This is a new service. To activated this, please look-up the TARIFF TABLE, and by way of your acceptance, click on the SUBMIT button once again, appearing at the button of the TARIFF TABLE

An automatic email should go out to all subscribers, every time a new button gets added. This way, you don’t have to remember to inform/advise each subscriber individually where; there is a possibility of forgetting some & incurring a “Revenue Leakage”.

The list of transaction (& button/tariffs) enclosed is NOT comprehensive. It is illustrative & should help you to come up with a more comprehensive list/table.

Since screen-area is a limitation, you will need to be “Cryptic” while giving “names” to the buttons.

Ø All Consultants

(Individual Copies)

Ø Kartavya

Ø Abhi

Customer Relations

Please go thru enclosed article. There are useful lessons to be learnt.

One lesson is that we did NOT design our Order Execution System (OES) keeping in mind, the needs of our customers. Perhaps our focus (while designing OES) was too much on compiling a hell-of-a-lot of “HISTORICAL DATA/STATISTICS/TRENDS” over a period of next 2/3 years, so that, in course of time, OES can also become a powerful “PRO-ACTIVE MARKETING TOOL”.

Idea was that, 2/3 years, down the line, we could use OES as a powerful

DATA-MINING TOOL.

This is why, in OES, we are trying to “capture” (thru data entry & thru mouse-clicks), a lot of data about each search-assignment. Some of these captured data are not really required for executing the current search-assignment and may appear as so much waste of time/effort!

It is possible that some of these DATA-CAPTURE may be “slowing down” our order-execution process.

But, it is too early to jump to such conclusions, when we have used OES, for barely 2/3 months so far.

We must use OES very thoroughly for all executive-search assignments (-excluding those from CADILLA, as we discussed in our recent meeting) for next 6/8 months, and then only make

à A list of “conclusions”

à A wish-list of what we need to incorporate in Version 2.0 of OES.

By that time, we may have entered over 100 search-assignments (-and even closed most) in OES. So, we would also have GOOD compilation of HISTORICAL statements. That should enlighten us on what “Trends” are emerging.

Eg:

Ø How mush “business” did we get from each customer? Who was best/who was worst?

Ø What was “Average” billing/highest billing/lowest billing? -and from which customers?

Ø Who (Which Client) gave us “Repeat” business & how much? Who gave us just one solitary assignment & never came back? Why? What went wrong?

Ø Are there any clients worth black-listing? Worth pursuing vigorously?

What “assignments” (-and from which clients) were

à Easiest to fulfil in terms of “time-taken” & “effort” put-in.

à Toughest to fulfil

How much of this “Easyness/Toughness” depended upon

à Calibre/experience/aggressiveness of the consultant who handled these assignments

à Availability (Member/Non-Member Database) of suitable executives

à Internal “indecisiveness” of client

à External help/assistance that we managed (eg. Jyoti Agarwal).

In fact the “HISTORICAL” statements of OES (as different from “OPERATIONAL”), reveal these trends. It is over job to “interpret” & draw conclusions & develop an action-plan for future.

OES contains down some 10 pages of such “TRENDS”! please remember that by faithfully implementing OES, we are, in effect, creating a.

DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM.

If you have any problem in use of OES, please contact me immediately. Not using OES is NOT an option!

2003-04 TARGETS

7 April 2003

Raju/SriRam,

2003/04 TARGETS

We discussed this last week, when I stressed the need for each consultant to do a “Net collection” of at least 12 times his/her salary.

One suggestion was that we should modify our incentive scheme & make it some kind of a “GROUP INCENTIVE” based on entire company’s “Net Collection” performance rather than, on an individual’s net collection.

I am willing to take a look at any such scheme & await your proposal.

In the meantime enclosed find

- Annex: A

- Annex: B (Same as A-except graphically)

These figures have been given by Asutosh.

You will observe that figs. Given are for “Net Billing”

& not for “Net Collection”

I am sure Asutosh can also give you figs for Net Collection for last 5 years.

However & feel the trend of Net Billing ratio, that we see, manpower cost will not change substantially.

Also if you feel that the figures are not exactly “Comparable” (apple-for-apple) then please get correct figures from Asutosh & re-plot. Also plot 2003/04. But one thing is clear.

We have to reverse the trend, starting 2003/04.

Please see, me as soon as you are ready.

STATEMENT SHOWING SALARIES/NET BILLING

PARTICULAR	1998-1999	1999-2000	2000-2001	2001-2002	2002-2003
	2493254	2543577	3891164	3891164	4635451
SALRIES	693254	743577	2091164	2080415	2835451
	1593254	1643577	2991164	2980415	3735451
INCENTIVES	0	18938	11859	16778	38568

TOTAL (A)	693254	762515	2103023	2097193	2874019

NET BILLING (B)	9812550	8264179	13694256	11798497	14502858
	3.93	3.24	3.52	3.03	3.12
(B)/(A)	14.15	10.84	6.51	5.63	5.05
	6.16	5.03	4.58	3.96	3.09

Annex: B/A = 5

3/5 = A

60 Lacs

WALK THE TALK

24 March 2003

Kartavya/Abhi/Reena

WALK THE TALK

We are planning to offer ResuMine/ResuSearch as “Web service” – to be followed by

· Ad-Compose

· OES etc.

Before we start “Offering” these (as Web service), we must, ourselves use these for 3 months AS WEBSERVICE” It is no good to tell our potential clients that although we do use these systems, we use these OFFLINE!

This would be like bill gates asking everyone to use “MS-Office” but Microsoft itself using “Star Office”

Or a Heart Specialist asking all his patients to quit smoking & eat vegetarian diet & exercise vigorously.

But himself, continuing to smoke & eat lots of hamburgers & never getting out of his chair!

No one would believe him.

So, we must become our own FIRST client. Then only we can speak from conviction. What do we need to do, to upload on our web server

- Module 1

- Search Engine

- OES etc.?

What are “cost” implications? What happens to our OFFLINE hardware’s (servers/routers?)

INVOICES

12 March 2003

Asutosh/Raju/ Sriram/Megha,

INVOICES

Please ensure that with effect from.

01.04.2003, no invoices are raised/issued outside of OES

These will cover all invoices far

· Min search fee/Retainer/Advance

· Progress payment

· Final professional fees Invoice

· Out –of pocket Expenses

(Have I missed out any?)

We have been using debugged OES for nearly 2 months now. This means, all assignments received after 15.01.2003 must have been entered into OES and for these, there can be no problem in raising invoices thru OES.

In case you receive request for raising any Invoice outside of OES (after 01.04.2003), please do let me know first, so that I can talk to the concerned consultant to find out the reason.

Nirmit – Raju – SriRam – HCP

done

Individual Copies:

► I hope soon it will be unnecessary to ask Ashutosh to generate Panel MIS reports outside of OES. Refine OES can give you ANY combination of order-executing related reports that you could possibly want. But there is some UNIQUE Omissions in OES done not from you. Let me know soon. I draw your attention to my note to Consultants (including Captives) re: using of OES. Since I have not had forms yet, if they have ANY cases in OES, then I am assuming that every current assignment is now in OES. Soon you will issue invoices to Ashutosh from within OES – unless OES is not explicit within OES. So if you anticipate any problem in the report, I would like to know NOW.

► In my note to Ashutosh Copies to you dt 26/2/03, I have reminded you to handover to Ashutosh target (monthly) value figures for each Consultant by 28/02/03/ by 15/03/03. Pl. ensure that this is done.

cc: Ashutosh

To follow up & comply.

Kartavya

27-02-03

done

GPRS/CDMA (WLL) vs. “CONTENT”

See enclosed article.

To popularise their “Services” all Cellphone Co’s are scrambling all over to find “content” in which subscribers are interested in & which can be delivered thru their service/network.

Everybody (all Cellco’s) are experimenting with:

→ emails

→ games (eg. cricket)

→ Video Clips of Events

→ News

→ Stock Quotes

→ Weather Reports

→ Greetings

→ Internet

→ Celebrity photos

→ Online lottery

→ Astrology (Forecasts?)

→ Songs

etc. etc.

There is no doubt, all of the above are of interest to some or other Target/Niche Group of users of cell-phones.

But, getting – and holding onto – a “job” is as basic as ROTI/KAPADA/MAKAN!

This “interest” (category) cuts across all the above-stated target groups.

Soon, cell-phones will be owned, even by jobless youth.

Now, in fact, if we could convince the Cell-phone Service Companies, that their “subscriber-base” can dramatically expand if they start delivering “Job Alerts” over their cell-phones, then there is a pretty good chance that they will jump at this (novel) idea!

Tell them that 50 million educated unemployed youth are registered …

With country’s 900+ Employment Exchanges!

If Bharti or BPL or Reliance manage to send Job Alert emails over their service, millions of educated youth will start subscribing to their service – over a prepaid card! Tell them, over 2 million job-seekers are registered with Indian Jobsites!!

And, we are prepared to give/offer this Service/Content to Bharti/BPL/Reliance “FREE”!

We don’t pay them (the Cellcos) anything to deliver our Job Alerts to their subscribers! – No way!!

Cellcos are, in any case, charging their subscribers Rs. 1/- for each SMS message. That is their “Revenue Model” – and they will continue with that, in any case.

But,

we are “obliging” them (Cellcos) by giving free CONTENT (even at the cost of loading our server).

And that they will leverage our (free) content to boost their revenues by vastly expanding their subscriber-base!

Then, again,

the Cell company, which jumps for our “FREE CONTENT OFFER” first, will gain tremendous COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE over its competitors. It will get the “FIRST-MOVER” advantage.

I suggest you/Nirmit speak to some Cellcos & show them demo of our RESUMINE/RESEARCH as well. Nirmit knows CEO of one Mumbai-based Cellco.

cc: Nirmit.

STOCK TAKING

26 Feb 2003

Asutosh,

STOCK TAKING

Year 2002-2003 will end in a few weeks. So, it is time for stock-taking (i.e management reporting).

It is also time for setting achievement targets for 2003-04 of course, while setting targets for 2003-04 we must ask ourselves, following questions:

· If we failed to achieve 2002/03 targets, why what were the reasons? Do these reasons still persist or have be managed to overcome?

· To achieve 2002-03 targets what “resources” had we planned as “inputs”? Was there any shortfall in providing these inputs? Eg: Manpower/space/working capital/HW/SW etc.

· While setting targets for 2003/04 what resources/inputs would we need and when? Are these clearly listed / quantified? Has action been initiated to “ACQUIRE” these resources? Should we set

- An optimistic target

- A pessimistic target

- A “realizable” target.

Depending Upon: acquisitions” of various resources?

Please use enclosed form for compiling data.

The form should be filled in & ready in all respects by APRIL 5, 2003. No excuses!

By sending a copy of this note/form, I am asking Nirmit / Sriram / Raju / Kartavya to help you in compiling data, wherever you need their help (esp in Target-setting for “Invoicing/Net collection” for 2003/04, for each & every consultant AND for both the Team).

The “Invoicing/Net collection” targets exclude any revenues that may get generated from our Proposed “WEBSERVICE”.

NOTES

· Obviously you cannot fill-in columns #14-15-16

· It is also alright (for 2002/03, if you do not have fig’s to fill-in columns # 1-2-3

· Column# 8 is same as column#11

· Barring 1-2-3-14-15-16, all the rest are ESSENTIAL.

Once this chart is ready (by 5^th April), you MUST get 2003/04 EXPENSE BUDGET & PROFIT-PLAN ready by 12^th April, when I have suggested to hold 3P’s second Annual Meeting.

ROAD MAP

13 Feb 2003

Kartvaya,

ROAD MAP

When we met Naveen yesterday, he mentioned the need to layout a ROAD-MAP, which we should show to HR managers, while giving demo of RESUMINE/RESEARCH.

Such a ROAD MAP. With target release dates of various MODULES, would inspire confidence. It would tell the HR manager that we are a serious player and we have long-term plans. We are not a fly-by-night operators.

Thru this roadmap, the HR managers should be able to see, how subscribing to 3P’s Web service would.

· Take out the “drudgery” from their work (the non-creative/routine tasks will get automated)

· Dramatically improve their own/personal productivity AND their departments productivity several fold.

· Leave them free to do more creative work of Organizational Development.

· Elevate HR function to the same level as other (So called) LINE FUNCTIONS within their Organization.

Not headed by a fulltime director and represented at the “Board” level? Why is the highest HR functionary given the title of a

- General Manager (HR)

- Vice President (HR)

In my detailed note on GLOBAL RECRUITER, I had enclosed a MASTER PLAN (copy enclosed). This may help you in developing a

ROAD MAP,

Of course, with following changes.

· Item #12 (online searchable database) gets already covered in 1^st Module of Resumine + Research.

· RESUMINE (extraction of fields) itself should come under item #4.

Of course, there is nothing sacrosanct about enclosed MASTER PLAN and you may feel free to modify it based on your PERSONIC exp.

Nirmit

Raju

SriRam

Mitchelle

Kartavya

Abhi

Labour Output Ratio

Enclosed chart shows Labour Output ratios for various industries. If any of you knows Mr. Paidi Day (Financial Express), you may want to obtain similar data for:

→ Service Industries

→ Software Companies

→ Consulting Firms

You may also manage to get such analysis from:

→ Eco Times Research Bureau

→ Business Standard

→ CMIE

→ NASSCOM

→ CII / ASSOCHAM / FICCI etc. etc.

Q: Are very Senior Candidates (GM/VP) aware of what exactly is this ratio for their industries?

SriRam

Raju

Nirmit

(Individual Copies)

done

Rationalization of “Masters”

In our Masters we have

→ >200 Industry-Names

→ >100 Function-Names

Some 6 months back, Abhi had done an A-B-C Analysis of these Industries/Functions and found that

→ 80% of resumes received (whether welcome or email resumes), belonged to only 20% of “Industries” and 20% of “Functions”

→ Absolutely No resumes were ever received against

- 50/60 Industry-Names !!

- 20/30 Function-Names

Based on these findings, I had drawn up a RATIONALIZATION (REDUCTION) PLAN. This (Masters) folder was given to SriRam/Raju, some 2 months back.

Now, we are at a stage, where we must finalize this “rationalization” by this SUNDAY. Unless we do so, we cannot proceed with some important software tool, on which we are working for last one week.

Therefore I suggest that 3 of you sit down this SUNDAY and finalize the same. If you wish, myself, Kartavya, Abhi, Inder would be happy to join you. Pl. advise.

Although I don’t think it is necessary, if you wish, Abhi can today, once again run ABC analysis of all 72,000 resumes (Industry-wise/Function-wise break-up). In any case, Abhi should be in a position to modify these MASTERS on Monday in

- Website

- Module 1/OES

- Several Software Tools

- Offline Job Alert/Resume CDs etc.

Regards

[signature]

cc: Abhi, Kartavya, Inder (Individual Copies)