Sriram Manoharan's Blog

Well, this is just one of those random blogs that I do to vent my thoughts and come back to see it when I need it…

Coming to this topic, I am just thinking probably 1 out of 1000 people will be very very good and 1 out of million will be great at what they do. The gap is huge. What is needed? What is the formula to be great ? .

I have read few things about it but nothing makes sense. here is my gap analysis to move from being good to getting great.

- Will Billions of $$$ valuations is considered great? Nope, Gandiji, Bharathiyar or Mother Theresa are not billioners but they are greats right? so Money is not the only point to be great.

- Do I need to look great to be great ? Nope, RajiniKanth or Narayan Muthy cannot a considered as great looking people… but they are greats.

- Paper Qualifications from Harvard, MIT, IIM or IIT? Nope… Steve Jobs, Amar Bose what are their qualification from which school?

- Do I need to Invent or Discover something new? Nope… we know that.

- Do we need to be Humble, Polite and lovely Image to be considered great ? How about Che Guevera, Subash Chandra Bose or Velu Pillai Prabhakaran.

- Do we need to be famous to be great? I know Saddam Hussain, Bin Laden, A.Raja and Idi Amin are famous.

- Luck ? — WTF, BS.

- Perfection? Nobody and nothing can be perfect.

The only difference between good and great people are their belief. The belief, they had in the themselves that they can be a one of those greats.

All we need to do is just ask ourselfs “Why can’t I be great?“... hope to find the answers at some point of time in your life.

Keep trying…We know that efforts never fail.

Cheers…

Kudankulam an unknown fishermen village of TN has found a huge space in all kind of medias across the world in the last six months. The Anti-KNPP team was very effective in the PR strategies, I can appreciate them only for that part of the protest. The project actually started in 1997 and I cant understand what these folks where doing for 15 years.

Yup, there are so many international & domestic political version of reasoning the Anti-KNPP and yes, any and all nuclear projects has risks attached to it. The main point of Anti-KNPP is that, in case of any unfortunate incidents, lively-hood of the neighboring village will be affected but the point is, if something bad happens to KNPP, The whole of TN, in fact many parts of south India will be affected very badly. Scientist says that Chernobyl has affected every other lifes in this earth in someway or the other.

So, Why do I still support it? Answer the following questions.

- What if the soldiers of Indian Army ask why should they risk their life for unknown people of this country?

- 1000s of people come to Chennai city every day to make living from all parts of the state and country which is the reason for all price hike and pollution in this great cities. what if the all the Chennai people protest the migrations?

- There are 100’s accidents happening on the road everyday, It a huge risk riding a bike in the city roads.. but still I go on the roads.

I think, as a citizen of this great sorry dying country, we are responsible for supporting and doing things that will country moving forward atleast a bit. Honestly, I feel KNPP is not a matter luxury, it a matter of survival.

1000MW might not do all the things we needs but it can still do a little bit that will a change in big ways in lots of peoples life. Probably something like these

- 30 mins of extra light for the kids in the rural areas to do their studies
- 30 mins of more extra power can generate lots of businesses and overall employment.
- 10 mins of extra power can help a farmer to water his crops better.

30 mins / day of extra power can saves INR 20000 / month for Contus. These days, our diesel bills are higher than the real estate bills.

First of all the Anti-KNPP is not protest. because, whatever may be the reason, paying protester to fight for their survival doesn’t makes any sense to me.

I know a lot of people around Kudamkulam and I have been there to some relatives home The place is dry barren land and standard of living is very poor. If people participate in these fabricated projects for few hundred rupees, you should be able to understand standard of living.

500 crore of funds will definitively change a lot of things around that place for good for sure + other welfare schemes will be great.

These just my thoughts and may be wrong but I feel that, I should support KNPP for all the right reasons.

Cheers.

Nope, Am not going to do a detailed listing on my highs and lows of my 2011… I wanted to record a clear and straight forward statement… 2011 was an average year for me both professionally and personally…

Though there wasn’t any big issues like I had in 2010 (2010 was the best), If I compare my situation between Jan 1 2011 and Jan 31 2011, It is more or less the same stuffs.

@Contus : It was BAU and a stable + profitable year, added more products and projects, somethings went well and something didn’t. I can write about it for next couple of days but to keep it simple, life at Contus in 2011 has been really Interesting but definitively not challenging.

@Home : Pretty Cool… Sofi had been completely busy with her work on some critical project, Pappu is getting brighter everyday, Dad got retired from work, Mom’s health was good and added some asserts.

So, If I look back and ask myself why 2011 was an average year, I guess…
- I didn’t do anything new or different.
- I didn’t take any risk at all so didn’t learn anything new at all.
- The only thing I remember learning is that I started coding for android development though is not a challenge or a need. Just did it out of curiosity.

So, I am looking ahead for a very challenging 2012 where I could learn a lot new Stuffs and Am gonna take risks.

Wish you all a very happy 2012…. Cheers.

Am really delighted and proud to let you all know that our latest product Mob eCommerce (www.mobecommerce.net) has fetched Award Of Excellence at the Your Story – ESparks 2011 Conference held on 17th Dec 2011 in Bangalore.

ESparks 2011 is the India’s largest showcase of eCommerce Start Ups, As per the official data, there was 227 eCommerce start ups from all over India participated and we came on the top 12 hottest eCommerce start ups in the country for the year 2011. The winners were chosen by the Sequoia Capital, the most respected PE Funding firm in the globe, Microsoft and many other respected people in the eCommerce business.

Yes, Winning a prestigious award is a great thing, above that, it was a fantastic and fruitful day for business. few things that made me very happy are:

Crowd Pulling Product : Even, we were surprised to see amount of interest people have shown in the product, our exhibiting stall was busy through out the day and we never expected to generate so many possible leads. It was super effective.

People know Contus Support : Well, we are yet to become Wipro, Infy or IBM. Its heartening for any growing entrepreneur like me to be recognized by people you don’t know from some other part of the country by your company name. They were so excited to meet us and discuss a lot important things with us. My personal thanks for their appreciations.

Met face to face with 3 of my clients : Since our products are distributed through web, Its not normal to meet our clients face to face. When they approached us and talked about their association with Contus as a company and they were so proud about it. It was soooo coool….

Partnered with Microsoft : Impressed with our Product, The Global Partnership Head of Microsoft Windows Azure came and gave us a fantastic opportunity on partnership program. It will be a first and strong step for Contus into Cloud Computing. Am excited.

People are interested in Funding Us : Though, We don’t actively seek funding from PE firms. There was couple leading growth fund companies in India was interested in having detailed discussion in 10 days. Its going to be great learning process for us in those world.

Gave a Presentation: It was so nice to present Mob eCommerce to a great crowd of more then 450 niche entrepreneurs and VCs. It was great.

To Conclude, Our sincere thanks to yourstory.in for recognizing us and motivating a lot of entrepreneurs like us.
These kind of good days are hard to come by when you are an entrepreneur. I really enjoyed the who day along with my team. It was satisfying.

Cheers…

Hello All : I just want to let everyone know that Contus Support is at huge loss today… in fact the worst loss we have ever faced since we started up…

Loss == “Vinosha is no more”

I still remember the scene when I interviewed Vinosha 3 years back for a Job as a “Trainee Web Designer”… The person (Vinosha) whom I interviewed was not an expert in Photoshop or flash or HTML or CSS… But we hired her, reason is “Fantastic Attitude”. She really wanted the job and we really wanted a person with great attitude to support our start up, So she joined Contus for Rs 1500/month as salary, yes 1500 rupees. Today, she had become one of the great asserts of our team and also a fantastic leader.

Unfortunately she quit today… not from our hearts or Contus but from this world. I know am one of the worst bosses when it comes to design but I can bet in any forum that Vinosha would be one the best designers in Chennai or even in India.

In the last three years she made great leaps in the world of web tech design and stood by the ideologies of our team without even a day of lag (Worked till Saturday evening). Her leadership was admirable and highly appreciated by everyone around us. Handled most of the toughest projects we have ever delivered.

Personally, It’s hard to find such a nice and warm person around. She cares about everyone around her. I am sure whom so ever had talked to her wont be able forget her easily. It is not easy to replace a person like vinosha at any level or in any relationships.

As am scribbling this blog… I wanted this to be one of those bad dreams and wanted to wake up with a silly thought of being fooled by a dream.

It’s hard to say how much we all miss Vinosha in few lines but all we can do is to pray for her soul to rest in peace.
Your contributions to the growth of this team is incomparable and we owe you a lot.

Also I pray to the almighty not to let me write these kind of things in my life anymore….

“The best brains of the nation may be found on the LAST BENCHES of the classroom ” -APJ Abdul Kalam

I like this saying from our Ex-President… coz I have always been on the back bench. OK..Ok..I know what you are thinking right now. I am not trying to claim that I have the best brain in the nation.

We the back benchers were not one of those studious students at school and my gang at school hardly pass any exams except for 10th public exams. Don’t ask me about how we cleared up till 9th standard. Honestly I don’t know. I have to remember and thank all my teachers for giving us those chances. Even the way we cleared the 10th standard without even opening a single page of any book were real adventures. Even today, We still talk about those 10th exams endlessly like war Heros.

At school, we always look for opportunities to get involved in some kind of trouble just to show off that we are cool guys, girls at school liked it and we have to show our reputation as a gang. Well, I think the only interesting thing at school which kept us from not dropping out was THE SPORTS. We all play like crazy even for 12 hours straight and we participate in any extracurricular activities just to avoid class rooms.

During those school days, Everyone saw us as a failures and always mentioned we would be worthless and a complete waste of time and money. Because paper qualification had the prime importance and everything else doesn’t worth doing it. Thanks to my parents, they never cared about the marks I scored.

But I will say with conviction, that the most of the back benchers are street smart. I am still in very close touch with my friends in schools and college (Back benchers), seeing them today, I can clearly say that they are doing very well in terms of financials and personal life. In fact better than many of the front benchers or book smarts.

I was just thinking loud on, how once worthless guys are doing so well without any good paper qualifications or big scores.
After graduating somehow with low scores as usual, we were ready for any job and any salary and we are ready to work hard and take every opportunity to impress the bosses (Like we tried to impress the girls at schools). Results were obvious, more salary and quick promotions because bosses like people who show it in action rather than people show it in presentations. We like to take decisions, what would be right for a situation and which is right for our clients and the team, without any fear and ready to face any kind of action in case of failures.

Another street smart thing that I notice is that every back bencher will identify the other one easily. When someone joins as a peer with excellent qualification, we don’t even care about it. Because we know that their high end fundas won’t work in real time situations and I will run away when one of those book smart guys starts talking rules, processes and industry standards.

At the same time, when we find another smart back bencher as peer, we won’t compete with them; we will become good friends and team up. We help each other grow because we don’t feel insecure by see another person growing because we know anyone who grows will pull the others up so that we can team up for the next level growth. I see them as friends who are not selfish and smart enough to understand only if the team or company grows we can grow and we will ensure that all of us would benefit from anybody’s growth. In corporate world they call these concepts as team work or politics. If you like it or not, this is how it works.

Also, I feel the most of the back benchers are honest; straight forward and fearless. they will say what they think and they don’t care whether it would hurt anybody, which will come in handy during tough times.

I formed a team at contus only with the back benchers who are extremely street smart, fearless and honest. I know them from the back benches of my schools, colleges or at work. Well, VCs and Angels dont like it but who cares they never help when we are in need.

I can say that the best brain of Contus Support today is founded in back benches of my college, schools or at work.

I know my wife will call it as rubbish logic like many of you… As a back bencher, I don’t care about those comments because one needs to be street smart to get this logic.

Cheers

This is not my first trip to USA… I have traveled a lot within this country, In fact more than I have travelled in India. This time my purpose of the visit is with the most interesting and challenging work loads. 100% business.

Well, I landed in NY city couple of days back with lot of expectations and am staying in one of the good hotels in Mid town Manhattan, to attend SES conference. I always wanted to attend this conference, which is one of the best in my industry. So, I don’t want to miss the opportunity this time, so I synced it with my other plans perfectly.

Well the conference was good but the NY experience was much more better. I am not looking at this city as an mere tourist but as an entrepreneur. Manhattan in particular, Its an amazing, beautiful and an enterprising business city.

There is not no doubt that it should be the financial capital of the world coz I can see money everywhere… the sky scrapers and the train under you foot and the planning of the city makes is it one of the most beautiful commercial places. It gives a different kind of feeling.

The conference got over by 5.30 PM and I reached my hotel at 9 PM. I was just walking around the city aimlessly amazed with its beauty.

People say that its very tough to live in the NYC coz of the cost of living etc… but i definitely want an office here for sure.

I just got only another couple of days in this city, cant waste my time sitting at the hotel. Going for another long walk again. Damn… I curse my ACL injury.

C ya

I have to say that 2010 was not an easy year to pass by both at work and at home. So many things happened in the last 12 months and it is quite memorable.

We started the year with moving into new office and an challenging mission of 100 people on the rolls of Contus Support. the budget over shooted for the new office but the team was very confident that we could make it happen. first three months was struggle and struggle and struggle. every day was challenging, right from our payment gateways failure to huge power problem we faced at the new office.

We had so many sleepless nights . when things got recovered, When our new products launched plus hiring people and handling tough projects. Situation was much more manageable.

Every month we faced with some kind of an issues which will frustrate and disappoint us to the core. but we never bogged down by problems. the team thought that each and every problem is some kind of learning. apart from the management team, our old employees made things easier for us. At the same time, we hired some very good talents into the company. things went by for few months with serious ups and downs.

Suddenly my mom struck with cervical cancer… which was a blow that was hard enough to push me down to the road. at the same time my friends and partners parents where getting sick for serious illness. when things are moving ahead at work, our personal stuffs where getting into turmoil, we all took enough break from office to take care of personal things but our team at office was unstopabble, they did some extraordinary stuffs which pushed Contus to the next level of business.

With all these ups and downs, Contus started becoming profitable which is good to fix our old problems. we constructed a new office with 50 more seats and hired around 50 plus good people in to the company.

If you have read my previous blogs, you know that I often mention that 100 as our target and we did it in style.

We know that 2011 is going to be another tough year ahead with new struggle but we are ready to face it as usual, we will become a billion dollar company very soon.

Wish you all a very happy new year.

Cheers

I have to say that it was busy, hectic, emotional, fun and fruitful few months. Kept me away from my blogging.

One of the most important thing that I want inform you all that my mom recovered from cervical cancer, she is well.

Yup, if it is a news to you. Three months back my mom was diagnosed for cancer,. I spent most of my days in the hospital for her treatment. Have to say that it is definitely not an easy thing. The best part is that my mom co-operated at ease and made it look like a simple thing. More than the treatment, her willing to survive is the key for the success of this treatment. I should thank my friends at Contus, my team and my wife for their great support in such unexpected time.

At office, we have done some fabulous things to achieve our goals for this year 2010. We expanded our infrastructure to add 50 more people to our rolls. Right now we are 91 and should be 100 by December 31. and we exceeded our revenue targets for the last 5 months. Also we are in the process of rolling out new products which will decide our action plans in 2011.

I have learnt lot of stuffs and did enormous amount of things. Its quite over whelming.

I am great fan and follower our president Dr. Abdul Kalam. The only trustworthy leader in our times. I have read his “wings of fire” at-least twice and he is undoubtedly a great inspiration to all us. I am really proud of him and am sure every Indian will be proud of it.

Got this forward from my wife. I dont have any authentic info on whether it is really from MR. APJ or is it Fake. but the whole message is worth reading.

Dr. Abdul Kalam’s Letter to Every Indian

Why is the media here so negative?
Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements?
We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why?
We are the first in milk production.
We are number one in Remote sensing satellites.
We are the second largest producer of wheat.
We are the second largest producer of rice.
Look at Dr. Sudarshan , he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit.. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.
I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news.

In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime.. Why are we so NEGATIVE? Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign T.Vs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology.
Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is.. She replied: I want to live in a developed India . For her, you and I will have to build this developed India . You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation.
..
YOU say that our government is inefficient.
YOU say that our laws are too old.
YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.
YOU say that the phones don’t work, the railways are a joke. The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination.
YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits.
YOU say, say and say.. What do YOU do about it?
Take a person on his way to Singapore . Give him a name – ‘YOURS’. Give him a face – ‘YOURS’. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don’t throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they are.. You pay $5 (approx. Rs.. 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity… In Singapore you don’t say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn’t dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai .. YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah.
YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs..650) a month to, ’see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else.’YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, ‘Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so’s son. Take your two bucks and get lost.’ YOU wouldn’t chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand ..
Why don’t YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo ? Why don’t YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston ??? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India ?
In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan ..
Will the Indian citizen do that here?’ He’s right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility.
We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms.
We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity.
This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public.
When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child! and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? ‘It’s the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons’ rights to a dowry.’ So who’s going to change the system?
What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbours, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr.Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away.
Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England . When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.

Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of introspection and pricks one’s conscience too….. I am echoing J. F. Kennedy’s words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians…..
‘ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY’
Lets do what India needs from us.