Business Networking

Business networking is more than just a clever tactic that most businesses use to draw in more clientele. For many small businesses that rely upon word of mouth, proper networking skills are completely necessary for the continued success and even existence of the company. Business networking is the fundamental act of referring business to other businesses, and in the process doing the same for you. Understanding how to give quality referrals is an art form in itself, and something that is extremely important in business networking matters. The old adage of, “I’ll scratch your back, if you scratch mine”, has never applied to anything more than to business networking.

Business networking, however, takes many forms, and you just might not realize how common it is. Whether a business is cold calling some of its clients on the phone, or meeting other business professionals for dinner or lunch, the networking is always taking place. Successful networking leads to referral business, new business ideas, and can help you to learn from other professionals in your field. Many businesses choose to become part of networking organizations such as different local chambers of commerce in their selected area. These organizations are excellent ways for business owners to participate in business advocacy and lobbying efforts, and offer a way for business owners to cooperate for their own protection. They often have meet and greet sessions where business leaders can meet together to discuss certain business topics that might be affecting them, the current business climate in their area, and formulate collective plans for the future.

Some say that up to 70 % of new companies get their business through word of mouth. Networking allows you the opportunity to formally introduce yourself and your business, to other business professionals in your area, to not only get to know them, but to get to know the services they offer as well. If business leaders can meet you and can trust you, they will have no problem sending business your way, and no problem receiving some from you. This is all part of the relationship building process that is so vital to successful business networking. It is a relationship built on trust and mutual interest.

In today’s high tech world, business networking has never been so easy and available. No longer do you need to live in the same area to network with business clients, or even in the same country. Due to popular online networking services, you can network with anybody all over the world. You no longer have to be a big shot to talk to big shots, or even speak the same language. Today you can have a dialogue, share ideas, and expand your business, all with the click of a mouse.

The Thousand Years Old Man

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Consider Yourself LUCKY

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Bharti Makes Management Changes

Bharti Airtel Limited, has announced key apex level organisational changes aimed at laying the foundation for the company’s next phase of growth. The new structure has been designed to manage future growth opportunities, exploit scale & building cost synergies, while continuing to derive advantage from on- the- ground focus on sales and enhanced levels of customer service.

Making the announcement Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharti Airtel said “Over the last couple of years, we have been able to build a world-class organisation. The company has grown not just in terms of revenue and market share but also in terms of strengthened processes, capabilities and governance. It has been our endeavour to empower our top management team, which has performed very well and is amongst the finest in the telecom world. Today, we have taken another step in further empowering the top management team and laid a strong foundation for embarking on the next phase of our exciting growth journey.”
Manoj Kohli, CEO & Joint Managing Director, Bharti Airtel will increasingly focus on strategy development, governance and organisation development. He will lead the overall transformation programme including creation of factories and shared services with the objective of building the right capabilities to enable the company succeed in the next phase of its growth. He will also provide additional focus on building the B2B powerhouse.

Sanjay Kapoor has been elevated from President – Mobile Services to a newly created position of Deputy CEO. In his new role, Sanjay will lead the Mobile, Telemedia and DTH businesses. Sanjay will report to Manoj Kohli.

Having led the transformation at the Telemedia business, Atul Bindal will take over as President – Mobile Services. K Srinivas who was Executive Director (East) – Mobile Services and in-charge of Sri Lanka operations will take over as Joint President - Telemedia Services. New business verticals such as M-commerce and M-entertainment etc. are being created to generate new revenue streams.

Atul and K Srinivas will report to Sanjay Kapoor.

David Nishball will continue as President - Enterprise Services and will report to Manoj Kohli. On the Enterprise side, the company’s aim is to build a B2B powerhouse over the next 5 years with enhanced focus on global wholesale voice and data, advanced Enterprise voice & mobility services, Enterprise solutions, Managed services and lead industry transformation projects.

SMS Goes Video!!

Kirusa, the world’s leading vendor of Voice SMS and a leading developer of mobile value added services, in partnership with Tetco-Voxpilot, a specialist in voice/video/data convergence, haS announced the world’s first ever Video SMS product. Exclusive previews of the Kirusa Video SMS solution, deployed on Tetco-Voxpilot Open Media Platform, are being demonstrated at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Video SMS is the first in a series of 3G initiatives being developed by Kirusa as a logical extension to its current flagship Voice SMS offering.

The Kirusa Video SMS application is a combination of the most popular 3G technologies available today. The application provides captivating features such as sending Video SMS messages, replying to Video SMS messages, forwarding Video SMS messages, and group Video SMS messaging, greatly enhancing the reach of video messaging to a wider population of mobile users. Kirusa Video SMS messaging is useful in a wide variety of consumer and business situations specially tailored for 3G networks. Carriers can offer the application to drive 3G revenues leveraging their existing network infrastructure.

How it works?
Video SMS is a 3G service, based on video calling, and is used to send short video clips. The Video SMS application allows people to send live video via an SMS message.

A mobile subscriber sends a Video SMS message, similar to how he sends a Voice SMS message -- he dials the * (star) key followed by the mobile number of recipient from a 3G phone, and chooses to make a video call. The camera then gets activated, allowing the subscriber to record a live video message. After finishing the recording, the subscriber may drop the video call, or review and re-record the video SMS message. The Video SMS message is sent to the recipient as a simple SMS notification with an embedded DirectListen™ number, which when dialed to make a video call, takes the recipient directly to the Video SMS message he has received. After viewing the message, the recipient can reply to or forward the Video SMS message.

The industry says that Kirusa’s Video SMS application is easy to use, integrates seamlessly into how mobile subscribers use video calling, requires little or no learning curve, and works with the existing 3G infrastructure, and therein lies its appeal.

Well, it is now the time to pray that 3G comes to India soon because as per reports the deployment of 3G has further been delayed to late 2009-2010. It was earlier scheduled to launch by the 2008-22009. Till then lets wait with baited breath.

And the Award Goes to!

The GSMA Awards have been announced @ the MWC 2009.

And the winners are

Best Mobile Game
Winner: Gameloft - Real Football 2009

Best Mobile Music or Video Service
Winner: BBC iPlayer on Mobile

Best Mobile Advertising Service
Winner: Turkcell - Tonla Kazan

Best Mobile Brand Campaign
Winner: R/GA London - Nokia Urbanista Diaries

Best Mobile TV Service
Winner: MobiTV - MobiTV

Best Mobile Enterprise Product or Service
Winner: Vodafone - Vodafone Global Enterprise Limited

Best Mobile Internet Service
Winner: Nokia - Nokia Sports Tracker

Best Mobile Money Service
Winner: Safaricom and Vodafone - M-PESA

Highly Commended: Digital Chocolate - AvaPeeps: FlirtNation

Best Mobile Handset or Device
Winner: INQ - INQ1

Highly Commended: Nokia - Nokia E71

Highly Commended: T-Mobile - T-Mobile G1

Best Broadcast Commercial
Winner: KT Freetel – ‘Show is…’

Best Use of Mobile for Social and Economic Development
Winner: Nuance Communications - Airtel-T9 India Consumer Vernacular Messaging Campaigns

Best Network Technology Advance
Winner: Nokia Siemens Networks - Flexi Multimode BTS Software defined HSPA/LTE

Best Service Delivery Platform
Winner: NewBay Software - LifeCache Social Networking Solution 2.0

Best Billing & Customer Care Solution
Winner: Expert System - COGITO Answers

Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough
Winner: RIM - BlackBerry Storm 9500 SurePress Screen

The Green Mobile Award
Winner: Smart Communications - Alternative Power for Cell Sites program

GSMA's CEO Award for Outstanding Environmental Contribution
Winner: Nokia

Government Leadership Award
Winner: The Government of France

GSMA Chairman’s Award
Winner: Research in Motion (RIM)

The 2009 mobile innovation global award champion
Winner: Cootek, China (Most Innovative Wireless Device-centric Technology)

The 2009 mobile innovation global award competiton
Winner: EMEA TOURNAMENT

Most Innovative Wireless Device-centric Technology
Winner: Intivation, Netherlands

Most Innovative Carrier Infrastructure or Platform
Winner: Sunbay, Switzerland

Most Innovative Mobile Application in a Vertical Market
Winner: WorldMate, USA

Most Innovative Consumer Application or Service
Winner: Mobile Nordic AS, Norway

Most Innovative True Mobile Start-Up
Winner: Advanced Receiver Technologies, USA

We appreciate and applaud them for their outstanding contribution to the mobile industry !!!

Lenovo Comes Off Age

Lenovo has launched the ThinkPad W700, claimed to be the first-ever 17-inch widescreen mobile workstation engineered to deliver unparalleled performance to data and graphics-intensive user environments, in India. It incorporates the built-in digitiser and colour calibrator in a mobile workstation and combines these innovations with technologies such as new NVIDIA Quadro FX mobile graphics.

The workstation supports the upcoming Intel mobile quad core processor which delivers the ultimate computing performance for mobile computing professionals. In line with Lenovo’s environmental commitments, the ThinkPad W700 meets and exceeds criteria for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star 5.0 programme for computers, which takes effect in July 2009.

The ThinkPad W700 can be configured with up to 8GB of memory. It includes WiFi wireless connectivity. Additionally, users can connect to other devices wirelessly using mobile workstation models featuring Bluetooth and ultra wideband technology. Models supporting WiMAX will be available later this year. This mobile workstation can also be equipped with dual internal hard drives with RAID configurations, including solid state drive storage.

The notebook comes equipped with an optional 400-nit WUXGA display that provides up to twice the brightness of earlier ThinkPad mobile workstation models and the 72 per cent wide colour gamut provides more than 50 per cent greater colour intensity. A 7-in-1 multi-card reader and five USB ports give users flexibility in transferring and accessing digital content. Additionally, the workstation comes with an optional compact flash reader and Blu-ray DVD burner/ player. RAID 0 configuration help users’ access and save their data faster than traditional disk-writing methods. Users can also opt for RAID 1 for mirrored data redundancy.

An optional mini-dock extends the mobile workstation’s capabilities with eSATA and digital audio ports as well as convenient cabling for power, external monitors and peripherals. The ThinkPad W700 also features BIOS/port disablement and an optional fingerprint reader, a smartcard reader and hard drives with full-disk encryption. It carries more than 20 certifications from independent software vendors.

Priced at Rs 1,49,000, the ThinkPad W700 mobile workstation is available through www.lenovo.in and Lenovo business partners.

SHIFT + DEL Your Computing Dilemmas

The creator of the first keyboard-and-mouse desktop set, Logitech, is up for surprises yet again. And this time their innovation, the Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution, surely aims to help people navigate through today's complex digital environments with ease. With a warranty of three years, the premium keyboard-and-mouse combination features a cordless laser mouse, a dynamic keyboard display and Bluetooth wireless technology.

The cordless laser mouse will transform many people's expectations about mouse navigation. Its MicroGear Precision Scroll Wheel technology offers people various modes of navigation. Firstly, they can fly effortlessly through long documents and web pages, spinning the scroll wheel freely to move through up to 10,000 lines of a spreadsheet in seven seconds. Secondly, they can set the scroll wheel to click-to-click mode, which allows precision movement through lists, slides or photos. And that’s not all. Its one-touch search, allows people to obtain Internet search results for any word or phrase on a web page or in a document. Finally, the thumb wheel can be set to launch the Windows Vista Flip 3D feature or to zoom in and out of documents and photos. And the rapid-charging stand eliminates the inconvenience of replacing batteries.

Well, the surprises of MX5500 don’t end here. It comes with a dynamic keyboard display which has a 2.95-by-.79 inch built-in LCD screen. It shows the time and date, calculator, temperature, Web site favorites, a keystroke counter, e-mail updates and media information, such as band and song titles.

Last but not the least the cordless desktop MX 5500 features Bluetooth 2.0 Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) wireless technology, which provides an easier setup experience, as well as a more robust and reliable connection than with previous generations of Bluetooth technology. But why is Bluetooth so important, one wonder. Its worth a mention because it allows users to use the desktop at a distance of up to 30 feet (10 meters) from their PC.

And there are no collaboration problems. Because the keyboard, mouse and receiver are pre-paired during manufacturing, people need only plug in the mini-receiver to a computer's USB port to connect the keyboard and mouse to the PC. The MX 5500 desktop's receiver can also be used as a Bluetooth hub, enabling other Bluetooth devices, such as a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone or a PDA, to connect to a computer through the hub. All a computer needs is a compatible Bluetooth stack installed for this mode to be functional.

To top it all the Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution is priced at INR 11,495 and is available at all leading electronic stores in India.

Rich Cut Back on Payments to Mistresses

Came across a very good article on wall street journal :

You know times are tough when the rich start cutting costs on their mistresses.

According to a new survey by Prince & Assoc., more than 80% of multimillionaires who had extra-marital lovers planned to cut back on their gifts and allowances. Still, only 12% of the multimillionaire cheaters said they plan to give up on their lovers altogether for financial reasons.

A portrait by François Boucher of Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of King Louis XV of France.

“Rich people are getting hit, and they’re all expressing the need to curtail unnecessary spending,” said Russ Alan Prince, president of Prince & Assoc., a wealth-research firm based in Connecticut. “Lovers are part of the same calculation.”

Of course, any study of millionaires and their mistresses should be taken with a large grain of salt. The survey–a subset of a larger wealth study–polled 191 individuals with a minimum net worth of $20 million who said they had lovers of at least a year or more (this to screen out the one-night stands, etc.). About two thirds of the respondents were men and one third women. All were married and all had personal control over their finances, meaning the women and men surveyed were the primary wealth holders in their homes.

The most surprising stats in the study relate to gender and what might be termed “length of service.” Fully 82% of men in the study said they planned to lower the allowances to their mistresses, while more than three quarters planned to provide fewer gifts, less expensive gifts and fewer perks, like jet rides, resort vacations and top restaurant meals.

Women were far more generous to their paramours in the face of financial crises. Less than 20% planned to lower allowances, gifts and perks, while more than half planned to raise them.

Susan Shapiro Barash, who teaches gender studies at Marymount Manhattan College and wrote “Little White Lies, Deep Dark Secrets,” about why women lie, said women value their lovers more than men in a time of economic trouble. “For the women, lovers matter more than ever now because the rest of life is so dreary,” she said. “For the men, they’re just cutting across the board.”

Ms. Barash added that women may value their lovers more today because their husbands are so miserable. “If your husband lost his job on Wall Street and he’s miserable, you need the escape,” she says.

The duration of the relationship also seems to play a role in the economics of high-end cavorting. The study found that more than two thirds of the millionaires who had been with their lovers for three or more years planned to cut back. That compares with less than half for those with a tenure of one to three years.

“What we found in talking to the respondents is that the magic of the relationship with their lover fades after a while, so they’re more willing to let them go,” Mr. Prince says.

The survey doesn’t mean to suggest that all, most or even a large minority of rich men and women have affairs. It simply is a snapshot of a certain sample at a certain time. Yet it suggests that in a time of financial crisis, it is better to be a kept man than a compensated woman.

The Peace in Death

For the grieving mourners of the Mumbai Victims..............and for all of us who are also in mourning..


Part One - The Calling

Let me sleep, for my soul is intoxicated with love and
Let me rest, for my spirit has had its bounty of days and nights;
Light the candles and burn the incense around my bed, and
Scatter leaves of jasmine and roses over my body;
Embalm my hair with frankincense and sprinkle my feet with perfume,
And read what the hand of Death has written on my forehead.


Let me rest in the arms of Slumber, for my open eyes are tired;
Let the silver-stringed lyre quiver and soothe my spirit;
Weave from the harp and lute a veil around my withering heart.


Sing of the past as you behold the dawn of hope in my eyes, for
It's magic meaning is a soft bed upon which my heart rests.


Dry your tears, my friends, and raise your heads as the flowers
Raise their crowns to greet the dawn.
Look at the bride of Death standing like a column of light
Between my bed and the infinite;
Hold your breath and listen with me to the beckoning rustle of
Her white wings.


Come close and bid me farewell; touch my eyes with smiling lips.
Let the children grasp my hands with soft and rosy fingers;
Let the ages place their veined hands upon my head and bless me;
Let the virgins come close and see the shadow of God in my eyes,
And hear the echo of His will racing with my breath.

Part Two - The Ascending


I have passed a mountain peak and my soul is soaring in the
Firmament of complete and unbound freedom;
I am far, far away, my companions, and the clouds are
Hiding the hills from my eyes.
The valleys are becoming flooded with an ocean of silence, and the
Hands of oblivion are engulfing the roads and the houses;
The prairies and fields are disappearing behind a white specter
That looks like the spring cloud, yellow as the candlelight
And red as the twilight.


The songs of the waves and the hymns of the streams
Are scattered, and the voices of the throngs reduced to silence;
And I can hear naught but the music of Eternity
In exact harmony with the spirit's desires.
I am cloaked in full whiteness;
I am in comfort; I am in peace.

Part Three - The Remains


Unwrap me from this white linen shroud and clothe me
With leaves of jasmine and lilies;
Take my body from the ivory casket and let it rest
Upon pillows of orange blossoms.
Lament me not, but sing songs of youth and joy;
Shed not tears upon me, but sing of harvest and the winepress;
Utter no sigh of agony, but draw upon my face with your
Finger the symbol of Love and Joy.
Disturb not the air's tranquility with chanting and requiems,
But let your hearts sing with me the song of Eternal Life;
Mourn me not with apparel of black,
But dress in color and rejoice with me;
Talk not of my departure with sighs in your hearts; close
Your eyes and you will see me with you forevermore.


Place me upon clusters of leaves and
Carry my upon your friendly shoulders and
Walk slowly to the deserted forest.
Take me not to the crowded burying ground lest my slumber
Be disrupted by the rattling of bones and skulls.
Carry me to the cypress woods and dig my grave where violets
And poppies grow not in the other's shadow;
Let my grave be deep so that the flood will not
Carry my bones to the open valley;
Let my grave be wide, so that the twilight shadows
Will come and sit by me.


Take from me all earthly raiment and place me deep in my
Mother Earth; and place me with care upon my mother's breast.
Cover me with soft earth, and let each handful be mixed
With seeds of jasmine, lilies and myrtle; and when they
Grow above me, and thrive on my body's element they will
Breathe the fragrance of my heart into space;
And reveal even to the sun the secret of my peace;
And sail with the breeze and comfort the wayfarer.


Leave me then, friends - leave me and depart on mute feet,
As the silence walks in the deserted valley;
Leave me to God and disperse yourselves slowly, as the almond
And apple blossoms disperse under the vibration of Nisan's breeze.
Go back to the joy of your dwellings and you will find there
That which Death cannot remove from you and me.
Leave with place, for what you see here is far away in meaning
From the earthly world. Leave me.



By: Kahlil Gibran