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!

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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.

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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.

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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"

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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.

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▶ 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:

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Diagram Summary:

Aggregation Layer

• Naukri

• Monster

• JobsAhead

• JobStreet

• Jobsa1
      ↓ Jobs
      ReemitGuru.com
                  ↓
                  Content Value-Enhancer & Customization Mechanism

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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). 

JOB DESCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE

Rahul

Job Descriptions Archive

Leveraging Job Advertisement Database

(2.8 lakh job ads downloaded from Naukri for WWJ/JAM, and stored on Reliance Server)

For JAM, our software was parsing each & every job advertisement downloaded, into the following fields:

1. Job Code

2. Position / Vacancy Name

3. Advertiser Company Name

4. Posting City

5. Educational Qualification required

6. Experience required

7. Age (Max)

8. Advertiser's Email ID (we were using this for JAS)

When you visit Reliance and copy these 2.8 lakh onto a CD and bring back, hopefully we would have:

• A structured database of all 2.8 lakh job ads as per fields shown above.

• Full job advertisement texts of all 2.8 lakh.

If we further succeed in setting up RSS feeds (from Naukri/Monster/TimesJobs) for various functions, we could receive (via FeedMyInbox.com?)

≈ 10,000 new job ads every day!

Same software can parse these as well (overnight) and our structured database can keep growing.

I am sure, ultimately, we will find many ways to "leverage" such a job advertisement database to attract more candidates & corporates to register on our website—but enclosed application:

JOB DESCRIPTION ARCHIVE

Would act as a FACILITATOR to thousands of companies who:

• do not have an HR executive

• have never used Online Recruitment Process
  (Non-consumers of e-recruitment)

• have NO clue on how to write a job description

“Job Description Archive” application is a supplement to my earlier note/MT on how to construct a job description using O*Net website.

O*Net is very exhaustive, very comprehensive, very daunting—even for experienced HR managers working in large Indian companies.

As far as above-mentioned SMALL / MEDIUM companies are concerned, the OWNERS would feel OVERWHELMED with O*Net!

But,

if he gets to see the Job Description used...

In an ACTUAL job-advt, by an ACTUAL Indian company, he would feel far more comfortable, at home, to copy & use it.

He will feel:

"I cannot go wrong."

He must be helped to first take this tiny step, before graduating to O*Net.

I would not be surprised, if we find even experienced HR managers taking this "short-cut"!

---

Critical part is being able to "find" (from our vast database) actual Position/Vacancy Name matching with what the user will type in.

STEP #1

About 1½ year back, we had prepared a tool, in which I did create some

SYNONYMS

for designations.

It was not 100% complete but its output can be tried for this application.

Rahul

Job Descriptions

Dated: 10/09/08

Our target is to make “Job Posting”

very easy / very compelling.

With this in mind, we recently added the following features:

• Currency Converter
  (to enable foreign companies to post jobs / do "Vacancy Blasts")

• Auto-fill of "Contact Info"
  (to save time)

• Auto-fill of "Keywords" box

  • to save time

  • to establish “relevance” with the post being advertised

  • to be able to compute RAW SCORE for that job advt
    and therefore, to be able to compute MATCH INDEX with any resume

But the “Job Description” box continues to be a BIG HURDLE.

I have seen HR managers having 10 years of experience literally FUMBLE

when it comes to writing a clear / concise / appropriate job description for

any “position/vacancy” they wish to fill up!

This (writing of job description) is one of their biggest PAIN-POINTS!

We would score BIG if we can help them out of this pain!

And, it seems we CAN.

By MASHING with our “Post Job” form:

http://online.onetcenter.org/find/quick

By modifying the “Post Job” form as follows:

---

markdown
• Job Title / Vacancy  [____________________]
  Fetch Job Description:
    ▶ From my own past Job Advt (latest)
    ▶ From Onetcenter
• Job Description  [________________________]

Table: GR_Client_JobDescriptions

Of course, recruiter would need to first enter/type “Job Title / Vacancy Name” before clicking on one of the links shown.

If clicking on

→ From my own past Job Advt (latest)

does not fetch any result, a message will ask him to click “From Onetcenter.”

OPTION #1

If he has ever advertised for a vacancy/position earlier, he would want to repeat the SAME job description once again (Why reinvent the wheel?).

If, in the past, he has spent a lot of time researching & composing a good/relevant job description (for any given vacancy) then it is obvious that he would want to use it again.

Of course, he can EDIT it, after the job-description box fills up.

In which case, our s/w will delete the old one and replace it with the “edited” version (as long as Vacancy Name / Title / Position tallies perfectly).

OR

If “Vacancy Name / Title / Position” entered differs slightly from the earlier one, then we can show him both the "versions" and allow him to choose anyone.

OPTION #2

Recruiter clicks on link From Onetcenter

In this case, our s/w will enter the Position / Vacancy / Title into the searchbar of O-net & click GO.

The page fetched will be shown in a separate window (– without hiding/covering “Job Description” box in our form?)

This will present to the recruiter several links.

He will click one which he considers “most relevant” to his needs.

That will open (in the same window) full job-description.

Some portions of the job-description may be relevant and some may be irrelevant.

But, I suppose, he can “Copy/Paste” into the “Job Description” box — then EDIT it.

It is easier to edit something you are presented with than to construct from scratch!

However, I feel our “Job Description” box —

with its 4-line — is too small for editing.

We need some trick!

This morning I tried some 30/40

“Position / Title / Vacancy Name” in O-net and found very good / relevant links.

It seems O-net’s “Relevance” score mechanism (algorithm) is based on “keywords” having certain “weightages” and is very similar to our own “Raw Score / Percentile Score” concept.

MASHING such a website with our own website enhances the credibility of our website. It is a kind of “Endorsement” of our logic!

Since Poonam had worked on modifying “Job Post” form recently, I suggest that she take up this as her next project as soon as she has completed her current project.

I have given her / Shalaka, a demo of O-net’s capabilities.

(Initials and date)

V.P.

16/09/08

HEADHUNTER'S PARADISE

Rajeev

cc: Vikram

cc: Rahul

Headhunter’s Paradise

To fulfill their search-assignments, 1500 placement agencies depend upon:

→ their private resume databases (lying on their hard disks)

→ posting a job-advt on job sites

→ conducting resume search on ''

But executive search firms cannot use this method.

Reason?

Senior Executives never post/submit their resumes on any job site.

They don’t even conduct a job-search on any job site!

They have to be head-hunted.

---

How do headhunters find/locate Senior Executives?

Not just “any” executive but “suitable” executives.

We know that for a company, the most suitable executives are those who are working with their competitors — except that they have not posted their resumes anywhere!

So what does a company do?

It gets hold of a headhunting firm.

Then gives the headhunter a list of “competing companies” or a list of companies operating in the same industry.

And tells the headhunter:

“From these companies, get me

→ Production Manager, or

→ GM – Finance

etc. etc.!”

This narrowing down/zeroing in on

→ A / B / C companies

→ X / Y / Z designations

is a good STARTING POINT for the headhunter.

Then the Headhunter’s R&D dept. swings into action and starts phoning the receptionists of those companies and says,

"I want to talk to your Purchase Manager because ___ (Bluff/Excuse)."

At that point headhunter’s consultant does not even know the “Name” of the “Purchase Mgr”!

This is the reason why, quite often, the receptionist or the secretary (of that manager) does NOT even put through the phone call!

But things could be vastly different if the headhunter’s consultant were to phone up

and say,

"I wish to talk to Mr. Mhatre, your Purchase Manager, to invite him to a conference."

Call will go through fast!

If headhunter manages to compile a list (with names) of all purchase managers working in all competing companies and first show this list to its client and say,

"Here are your competing companies and here are the purchase managers working in those companies. Now tell me, which of these executives you want me to talk to and persuade, to give their resumes?"

That would greatly impress the client! He will think headhunter has done “in-depth” research. His confidence in headhunting firm goes up vastly!

So, if we can provide such a tool to headhunters, whereby

→ he enters "names of few companies"

  (belonging to same Ind.),

then

→ he enters a "designation"

and, in few seconds, gets a list like:

pgsql
| Company Name | Designation   | Name of Executive |
|--------------|---------------|-------------------|
|              | Purchase Mgr  |                   |
|              |    "    "     |                   |
|              | Material " "  |                   |
|              | Purchase Exec |                   |

That would be fantastic! It would eliminate hours/days of “research” on part of the headhunter!

In fact, if such a tool were available on Global Recruiter,

then it is entirely possible that

the client’s HR manager may

himself create/find such a list

first and then call-up the headhunter and say,

"I am emailing a list of executives

with their designations & Company Names.

Pl. talk to them for XYZ position

in my company".

I strongly believe, such a tool,

would motivate both corporates &

headhunters to subscribe to Global

Recruiter.

Neither Monster, nor Naukri, nor Timesjob

(or any other jobsite) offers such a

tool.

In “Resume Search - Pinpoint”,

after

▶ first selecting a “Company Name”

▶ next “Designation”,

our s/w searches matching “Resumes”

and displays in last (right hand)

box.

Instead of actual Resumes what we want displayed in right-hand box is

pgsql
+----------------+-------------+--------------+
| Company Name   | Exec. Name  | Designation  |
+----------------+-------------+--------------+

There are TWO ways to do this:

① Using Google/Harvester, compile such lists and place them in "NON-MEMBER" database – which is searched by s/w & results returned. (OFFLINE).

② Like Harvester, transfer "Search Criteria" (viz: Company Name & Designation) to Google/Yahoo etc & return results "on-the-fly".

This is a low priority project.