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Last week at the Facebook Developers Conference (termed f8) they released a simple yet powerful feature called the Like button. In a single line of code any website can become part of the massive Facebook matrix instantly. Sites such as the Wall Street Journal are already serving up Like buttons and it adds a whole new dimension. Now when you see an article on cnn.com and notice some of friends Like an article, you can judge the social context of the article. Is the article “liked” by your business friends, family friends or friends that like tabloid trash.

The Like button concept is not new. It’s been around for years, digg.com was one of the early social news aggregators. Digg over the past few years has been sputtering around and it’s CEO Jay Adelson was shown the door early this month. Kevin Rose, the founder, is back at the helm and was the internet poster child in 2006 when he was on the cover of BusinessWeek. As for digg, I see more and more sites adding the Like button and will most likely have it along side the digg button and other similar buttons. But honestly, who is going to sit there and press 2 or 3 buttons. I see someone pressing one button if they like an article and that button will be the Facebook Like one. I also see Facebook working with big content providers and “suggesting” they have only one button – theirs.

It’s a brilliant strategy too extend Facebook’s reach beyond the facebook.com domain. An example of someone executing this concept one step further is the site http://likebutton.me. It aggregates all your friends that have “Liked” stories and overlays it onto an easy to view grid.

Over the past several months I’ve been trying to crystalize my thoughts over the current rage of social media. It all came together when I saw the following quote (via Lifehacker):

Don’t Mistake Activity for Achievement

- John Wooden, legendary basketball coach

Lately, I’ve noticed many people asking me if I’ve joined their Facebook Page or followed them on Twitter.  Social media is another marketing medium for a product/service. With no upfront cost people are creating Facebook Pages and using Twitter, for the first month they are posting and updating on a daily basis…then most likely it dies.

First, you have to decide if social media is really going to help you.  If you are selling industrial products probably not. Just like I would not advise someone to blow money on a print/tv campaign if they are trying to sell an email marketing service such as Constant Contact or MailChimp…know your target audience.

Actually, it goes further back is your product/service awesome.  If you believe it’s awesome that’s the first step…you have to be fully engaged and eat, sleep and breath it.  Without a great product or need, social media will just help you publicize what a pathetic product/service you have.

Sahil sums it up – Content is still king. (his blog)

If you were to ask me 6 months ago about social media consultants (SMC), I would have said pour yourself a tall glass of STFU and go sit quietly in the corner.  But, SMC’s are like an advertising firm who can help you generate ideas and implement them…but can’t commit to success. I’m sure Porsche does not go to their advertising agency and say we want to implement the new Porsche Panamera campaign and you have to guarantee 1,000 units are sold…not going to happen.

It brings me back to the original point of the quote, people that are spending time tweaking their social media strategy should really be focusing on how they the can improve their existing product/serice. Just because you are updating your fan page or tweeting about some article on TechCrunch ain’t gonna cut it.

The SEC strikes again as it issues a Wells notice to Goldman Sachs (GS) for selling CDO’s that were allegedly created to fail. A major hedge fund (Paulson & Co.) was on the short side of the trades and apparently he selected what securities would go into the CDO. I’m just calling it “shady shit.”

A couple of points. First, I’m sure other investment banks did the same thing and it’s not just a “Goldman thing.” Second, GS will pay a fine and sweep it under the rug. Coincidently, talk of financial reforms are doing the rounds on Capital Hill, some say the timing of the Wells notice and government financial reforms was coordinated. Might be.

Personally, I think 2 things would make a difference and a lasting impression.  First, instead of targeting specific instruments such as derivatives, a macro view might be a better approach. It would be similar to someone committing a crime with a knife will get XYZ punishment, or if you committed the crime with a gun then its something else.  When really you should be targeting the crime itself.  Since, Wall Street is really driven by money I think that’s where they should start.  Instead of basing a fine on the profit someone made, it should be based on the value of the security. In the Goldman case they should not target the USD 30 million or so that GS made. Instead, they should base the fine on the initial value or ending value of the security (whichever is higher) – USD 1 billion. That changes the dynamics of the risk management team, then everyone is watching everyones back and some dumb ass VP won’t be misrepresenting a USD 1 billion transaction.

Secondly, the Glass-Steagall Act has to come back.  It originally stated that commercial banks and investment banks were seperate.  In 1999 that act was repealed and the effects of that are pretty obvious – it was like putting Wall Street on a cocaine, alcohol and steroid fueled binge. In addition, they should take it a step further, you cannot trade on behalf of the company (aka prop books). Prop books would have to be spun-off and their P&L managed individually. If anybody thinks that front running does not occur is fooling themselves. Talk of a Chinese Wall is pure garbage, it’s more like Swiss Cheese.

In summary, fines based on the initial or ending value of the security (whichever is higher), bring back the Glass-Steagall Act and ALL prop books have to be standalone units.

What is the national carrier of India – Air India. Compared to other carriers around the world Rs. 17,000 CR (USD 3.5 billion) in debt is not so bad but when you realize their fleet size is small it starts to add up.

Air India recently announced 4 new member to their Board of Directors, most notable is Anand Mahindra who runs Mahindra and Mahindra. In addition, over the past 4 months there have been numerous articles printed about how Air India is going to move forward and change – bullsh@$#.  I think Air India is too unionized and stuck in the government worker mentality. It needs to streamline their organization but no one has the political will to do that. I would love to know how many of the seats are given to political people and their families…again another line item that no one wants to touch.

The merger of Indian Airlines and Air India was another disaster in the making. Indian Airlines handled all the domestic flights while Air-India was the international arm. Many say the merger was done to hide the loses of Indian Airlines and bury them into the books of the newly merged entity which is officially called The National Aviation Company of India (NACIL).

So what needs to get done?  The first step is to start privatizing the carrier just like Lufthansa (article on Lufthansa privatization) and British Airways (BA article) did. This would force the carrier to shed some employees and start to be more competitive. But, I’m sure NACIL will hire a consultant like McKinsey or Accenture and then put the blame of the decisions on the consulting company – business as usual for Air India.

P.S. The 32,000 feet in the blog title does not refer to the cruising altitude but the number of employees – 16,000

Should you plan your business with a 25+ slide deck and 30 page business plan or just get out there and start?

Part of me thinks you should plan your business strategy but more then not I tell people just do it and get started. There is no way in hell you can predict what is going to happen in 6 months much less talk about customer acquisition numbers in month 26 of your start-up.

My advice to start-ups has always been the same, spend a couple days and create a 10 slide pitch deck.  Even if you are not looking for funding the process allows you to simplify and clarify what your goals are.  After that fun exercise get back to work and focus on executing and creating the product or service.  The first version of the product/service will not be perfect and that is okay.  Get it out to your intended audience and wait for the feedback. If there is no feedback, then it’s back to the drawing board.

By know you are wondering what is with the image in the upper left corner of this post. It’s the icon for a Mac Twitter client called Tweetie. Tweetie was created by Loren Brichter, who claims he was never a programmer when he created Tweetie.  Recently, Tweetie was bought by Twitter and Loren will now be working for the mobile platform team at Twitter.  Loren is a great example of someone who got out there and did something. He left Apple and ended up creating Tweetie because all the Twitter clients at the time were not that great. It’s safe to say he didn’t create a 30 page business plan. You can watch the full 30 minute presentation he gave at Stanford talking about Tweetie - iTunes link.

Excellent quote from John Morgridge, former CEO of Cisco Systems. I heard the following quote from him during one of my trips to San Jose where he was speaking.

Business plans are like peeing down your leg, it gives you a warm feeling but it doesn’t do anything for you.

Update: Many people have emailed me for a template of the 10 slides.  Download a great presentation that talks about how to pitch and also the 10 slide template.

This is not about some journey from the midwest of the US to the middle of India. This builds on my post a couple weeks ago about understanding your target market.

I grew up about 100 miles south of Indianapolis (Indy) and looking back on it, Indy is a test market dream. Indy is a good proxy for getting a cross-section of the average US consumer and costs are low. I remember visiting Indy as a kid and wondering why did they need 5-6 electronics stores (HH Gregg, Circuit City, etc…), then I read that Indy was ground-zero for the battle of big-box formats in the 80′s.

India has a similar city – Indore.  It’s right smack in the middle of the country. I’ve visited Indore many times through the years and the more I visit, the more I see similarities with Indy. In both cities, people tend to be more conservative but willing to experiment with new products/services.

For most business the Tier 1 metros – Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkatta and Chennai are good enough.  But, if a company is looking for size and scale they will have to look beyond Tier 1 metros.  And that’s where Indore comes into play, if your product/service gains traction in Indore I’m pretty confident you can reach across India.

Depends on where you live. If you happen to live in the US, then yes…craigslist has killed the classified ad revenue model for newspapers, advertising pages for most magazines are down and many magazines and newspapers are just throwing in the towel.

Come to India and it’s whole different ball game, newsprint is doing well and the number of new magazine launches is insane. In the last few months I’ve seen at least 6 new launches, Lonely Planet being the latest. Lonely Planet is published by Worldwide Media a joint venture between The Times Group and BBC Worldwide. They also publish Top Gear and a yet to be launched home/architecture magazine.

I’m expecting more magazines to be launched as advertisers in India seem to be flush with cash. I’m really looking forward to two types of magazines, one is a Consumer Reports type magazine that will evaluate and rate products/services free of any payola – which is fairly rampant in India.  The other is a personal finance magazine, that can give you the pros/cons for new products and real down to earth advice.  Most of the existing personal finance magazines will never talk about a product in a negative tone for fear of losing advertising revenues.

India is different, when it comes to print media.

I always laugh when I get an email or phone call from someone telling ME how big of an opportunity India is for XYZ… Part of me wants to puke on their business plan, but part of me does believe India has vast opportunity if an idea is executed correctly.

Most of the conversations go like this “I was in India for 2 weeks and everyone has a BlackBerry or iPhone…wow 1.2 billion people, if I capture 1% I’m golden…” or “there is a large captive audience if we streamline service XYZ.”

Let’s examine each thought process in detail. The person in the first example probably stayed at a 5 star hotel and dealt with people that most likely are high earners.  That is not the real India, this individual is going to be shocked at how small the actual target audience is.

The second assumption is someone looking at a problem from a US/European point of view and applying it to India. An example would be mobile phone networks in India, right now India is adding 10 million new mobile users a month.  Mobile operators are not concerned about retaining customers or streamlining customer interactions, instead their biggest issue is their infrastructure cap-ex spending.

For ANYONE looking to start a business or expand their current business in India, I would highly recommend the book “We are like that only” from Rama Bijapurkar. It will get you to start thinking about your REAL market size opportunities and not fall into the 1.2 billion population trap.

Rama highlights 3 types of consumers in India based on income distribution: premium (10%), popular (30%) and discount (60%)…yes, most Indians are “value buyers.” When I hear Ferrari, Gucci or some other high end product is coming to India, you can assume it’s going to be a loss leader for many years to come.

Chapter 7 is where the action really starts with the SEC codes, what are SEC codes? Socio-economic codes (SEC) is a way to classify and segment the entire 1.2 billion people running around India. Those folks who want to sell Ferrari’s and Gucci bags will be bummed to find out their target audience is classified as SEC A1 which contains only 2 million households and 10 million people…what a let down.

Rama is very quantitative driven with her research and I was hoping for more actual case studies. However, the book is a must read for anyone looking at India or wants a PhD in number crunching India’s social graph.

Wow…that’s the only word that came out of my mouth when I saw a picture of the Vorsteiner tuned BMW 7 series. That is hugh for someone that has always had a love affair with Benzo’s from the days of the 560 SEC. As a kid I was crazy about Mercedes but over the years that affair has slowly waned. I have always loved Audi’s all the way back to the Audi 4000 and the death trap 5000.  However, BMW’s were always absent from my mental list but that has slowly started change with the BMW 6 series and the recently launched 7 series. Many of the styling cues of the current  7 series have come from Chris Bangle who was put in charge of BMW design and for many years was the most hated car designer.  Sad to say, I was pretty vocal of past BMW designs but the 7 series has made up for it. Chris Bangle left BMW last year and their sales are doing very well…some vindication for him.

The Vorsteiner tuned 7 series is just breathtaking…they have taken a beautiful piece of machinery and made it even it even better without ruining it as most tuners do. Take a look at the picture gallery and prepare to drool.

It’s official, Bloom Energy has revealed what it has been working on for the past 8 years…and it looks impressive. KR Sridhar the co-founder of Bloom Energy previewed the Bloom Box on Sunday on 60 Minutes.  I happened to be watching a DVR’d version of it on Monday and was blown away by it. If it lives up to the hype then its a game changer for the world.

Something that caught my attention was the fact you won’t need to be on the electrical grid if you have a Bloom Box.  Applying that logic here in India, that would be HUGE.  Since the electrical grid in India is missing most of the time or if you are on the grid the grid is not on.  Think I’m kidding, my dad’s village in India get’s about 10 hours of electricity a day…in this day and age. And sadly that is pretty much the story all over India.

The Bloom Box could transform India and solve its age old power crisis.  Of course, that would also mean many companies that are building power plants are gonna get body slammed in the process.

So where did Bloom Energy come from? That is an interesting story and slowly being told. To get over USD 400 million in venture financing and stay under the radar for 8 years does not happen often.  As far as their first customer Google, not really surprising since the VC firm KPCB backed both Bloom Energy and Google. The lead partner John Doerr I’m sure worked his magic to get several Bloom Boxes to the Googleplex.

So what’s with the title of the post? Think of the song “Boom Boom Pow” by Black Eyed Peas.

UPDATE: Kudos to Bloom’s PR agency for blanketing every medium to get the word out. 60 Minutes interview, Times of India coverage, Engadget live blogging the event…

UPDATE2: It appears Bloom Energy has 2 developmental offices in India, one in Bangalore and another in Bombay . The one in Bombay is located in Vikhroli which is a Northeastern suburb.