“We rely heavily on employee referrals”

Interview of the Day: “We rely heavily on employee referrals”

Raj Raghavan, Country HR Director, Amazon India

How important is the role of a diverse workforce in Amazon’s business in India? 

It’s very important!  Amazon has been in India since 2004, supporting global technology and operations. Ever since, we have always had a diverse workforce. A diverse workforce is integral to the growth of the company and the growth of the economy. It fosters new ways of thinking, innovation and reaching out to a wider range of customers and growing your business.

How diverse is your workforce?

We have women leaders who run categories, businesses, technology teams and hold leadership positions at Amazon. Gender diversity brings ‘Diversity in Thought’ and that’s important for a balanced leadership. At the recently concluded Grace Hopper Conference in Bangalore, world’s largest conference of technical women, 25 of our women leaders, who are technology experts and engineers, participated.

What are the various best practices you employ to keep your workforce motivated and engaged?

Amazon has a culture that inculcates “Ownership”. We don’t think skills forward, we think customer backwards. And that is the predominant way in which we engage with our people. We build capabilities and learn skills based on customer needs.

We have a global customer connections program that mandates all managers to spend 2 days in a year resolving customer questions on telephone e-mails. This helps managers across the organisation aware of the pulse of the consumer.

At Amazon, we encourage an owner-driven work environment, in which our employees can make decisions, so that they are quick and nimble. We are not bureaucratic. We don’t have huge layers of management.

We practice a mentorship program where every new employee is allocated a Buddy, who mentors/ guides and inducts them into the culture of the organisation. This buddy is someone you can go to for advice. He/she is like your sounding board. Such a program helps employees to engage and learn a lot from their seniors.

You must have an extensive warehousing and logistics set up. What are the challenges you face while sourcing a workforce for this set up?

Our warehouses are called Fulfillment Centers. We have a very high hiring bar and to meet that bar and clearing it, is challenging in itself.

At Amazon, we want to hire superstars! We want the existing employees to feel proud of the hire we have made, so that they look forward to working with that person and feel motivated to learn from that person. To hire great talent is fun, but at the same time it’s challenging too.

How do you generally source your employees?

We have a large sourcing team internally. Besides that, we rely heavily on employee referrals and we have a robust employee referral programme.

We also make use of social channels such as LinkedIn to source people. In specific cases we also use expert consultancy services to find the right people.

Is a candidate, aspiring to join Amazon, required to have degrees from only the elite and premier institutes? How can competent candidates from not-so renowned institutes be a part of Amazon?

At Amazon, we believe that education is just one of the components that make up a suitable candidate and his/her performance and experience on the job is the key. We select people from various engineering and management institutes across the country. We ourselves go to a variety of colleges and B-schools to reach out to potential candidates. We don’t have a bias towards any particular institute.

What is future roadmap for Amazon in terms of human capital? 

The three words that really define us and will continue to define our future are – ‘Hire’, ‘Keep’ and ‘Grow’. This is something I have always maintained and keep reiterating to my team. 

Will 2014 be a good year for candidates aspiring to make a mark in e-commerce sector?

E-commerce industry in India is still growing and evolving. We see a huge opportunity in the country and that is why we are here. Amazon in India has its marketplace, www.amazon.in; we have Amazon Web Services that provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services and Kindle. We offer all three services here in India. I think it’s going to be a great 2014 for product technologies segment wherein e-commerce will be the most popular.

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Hearty lunch not breakfast king of meals

Hearty lunch not breakfast king of meals 

Here's why hearty breakfast stands to lose its 'star meal' status to wholesome lunch

You have been told for long to 'eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper' for optimum health. You may want to give your diet chart an overhaul. It is argued that the concept of 'eating breakfast like a king' was coined by the profit-driven cereal industry. "It had nothing to do with health, or the need of the body," says nutritionist Anju Venkat. "Our body cycle comprises three functions — appropriation, digestion and elimination — for maintaining life. These three functions, which work in eight-hour cycles, are constantly going on in the body."

Natural functions 
Here is how the founder of Worli's Health Awareness Centre explains the body's cycle: noon to 8 pm is for digestion. This is the time to eat, so that the body can most efficiently break it down into nutrients. The time between 8 pm and 4 am is for assimilation/ absorption — when the body does its building and repair work. "This is the time whennutrients received during the day are utilised to make new cells and tissues. This is the time to rest or sleep, (and certainly not eat) since the body is hard at work anyway," adds Venkat.

And, between 4 am and noon it is time for elimination. "At this time, the body is getting rid of the waste debris. All that the body cannot utilise is thrown out," says Venkat. "The best time to eat foods that take time to digest (cooked food) is between noon and 8 pm."

Prescribed by tradition 
For centuries, Ayurveda has prescribed different norms for dincharya (daily regimen) and ratricharya (night regimen). "These norms are based on an approach to keep the balance between the biosphere, as represented by the body, with that of cosmic-sphere, represented by the movement of sun, moon and the air. The cosmic phenomenon is functionally represented in human body in terms of vaat (air), pitta (fire) and kapha (earth)," explains Dadar-basedAyurvedic physician Dr Narendra Bhatt. According to Bhatt, the digestive fire is associated with the pitta constitution, which is related to the sun. So that is the time when a full meal will be optimally digested — when the sun is the strongest.

Hard to digest 
A full meal, like a cheese omelette along with butter toast, with side vegetables, occasionally sausages, in the first quarter of the day, is hard to digest for the body. Venkat says, "Milk, for instance, takes six hours, a cheese omelette with toast takes 36 hours, and a cup of tea or coffee takes 24 hours to digest."

She adds, "When we eat the wrong food at the wrong time and in the wrong combination, digestion gets prolonged and functions of cleaning and repair slow down too."

The ideal first meal 
Since fruits are pre-digested and supply the body with enough nutrition, they can be consumed in any quantity and at any time. They can be in the form of whole fruit, fresh fruit juice, fruit pulp or dried fruits. Aside from their high water content (needed for cleansing), Venkat points out that fruits leave no acidic residue in the body and demand zero energy for digestion. This makes them an ideal meal for mornings, when the body is in cleansing mode.

Having cereals for breakfast is not a good idea, warns registered dietician Pooja Singhania, as they are carbohydrate rich with very little fibre and protein. "The food industry has indeed cashed-in on claims about importance of breakfast," says Singhania. "Cereals like corn flakes are processed grains, loaded with sugar, sodium and artificial flavours and have little fibre and protein. Moreover, the ironfortified cereals discourage absorption of calcium from milk," she says.

Minimally processed foods in the form of chapatti, theplas, idli, contain higher nutritive value and make for a healthy breakfast.

"However, with our urban lifestyle where the day begins and stretches late into the evening, it is better to have a slightly fulfilling meal like poha for breakfast, followed by a wholesome lunch and a light dinner," says Dr Bhatt
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HP to host Obamacare website HealthCare.gov

The agency in charge of the troubled HealthCare.gov website said is it switching providers of Web hosting services.

WASHINGTON: The agency in charge of the troubled HealthCare.gov website said is it switching providers of web hosting services, the latest change for the website at the heart of president Barack Obama's health care reforms. 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said it is replacing data center services from Verizon Communications's Terremark subsidiary, with services from Hewlett-Packard. 

Terremark's data center experienced issues in late October that caused outages across the system, prompting embattled Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to phone Verizon's chief executive to discuss the problems. 

Obama and Sebelius had promised the website would make it easy to shop for health insurance required under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. 

Instead, slow response times, error messages and outages like the ones seen at Terremark's data center meant few Americans have been able to enroll so far. 

The disaster has fueled Republican criticism of the law, and alarmed Democrats who supported it. The administration has had to scramble to make fixes in the hopes enough Americans sign up by deadlines in December and March. 

Both Verizon and HP declined comment on the contract change, as did the White House, which referred questions about the contract to CMS. 

CMS said its contract with Terremark had been set to end in March 2014. Last summer, several months before the botched October 1 launch of HealthCare.gov, the agency issued a "task order" asking for bids. HP was awarded that contract, a CMS spokesman said in a statement. 

The contract change was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. 

Now, CMS needs to transition its data center to HP at a time when it is just beginning to dig out from a mountain of problems with the website, which is designed to let consumers shop for health insurance required under Obama's signature health care law. 

The complexity of the switch between data center providers could be an additional challenge for the project. A CMS spokesman did not respond to questions about whether the transition would affect the website. 

The Obama administration has said it plans to have the website working smoothly for most users by this weekend. 

Part of that upgrade involves doubling capacity so the website can handle 50,000 users at once. 

A source close to the project, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there are some concerns about the website's ability to handle so many users because of problems with switches and servers maintained by Terremark. 

"CMS has begun the necessary activities to transition the data center over to HP. We are working to ensure a smooth transition between the two contractors," the CMS spokesman said in a statement. 

Verizon has received $55.4 million for its work on the healthcare marketplaces since its contract started in 2011, according to federal contracting records
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Jolla: First Sailfish OS smartphone goes on sale

The Jolla handset's Sailfish OS is based on MeeGo software, which Nokia abandoned in 2011 when it switched to Windows Phone.

HELSINKI: A team of ex-Nokia engineers is launching a smartphone based on the former world No. 1 cellphone maker's old software, hoping to grab a share of a highly competitive market.

The Jolla handset's Sailfish operating platform is based on MeeGo software, which Nokia abandoned in 2011 when it switched over to using Microsoft's Windows Phone.

The 4.5-inch phone features an 8-megapixel camera, supports 4G internet connections and includes Nokia's HERE maps covering 180 countries. It is compatible with some 85,000 apps by Google's Android.

It will first launch in Finland on Wednesday and then in 135 other countries.

Jolla was founded in 2011 after Nokia laid off thousands of workers as it lost market share to rivals. It has over 90 employees in Finland and Hong Kong.

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Why Samsung’s $14 billion marketing budget is not paying off

Samsung is expected to spend around $14 billion on advertising and marketing this year, but it doesn't always get value for money.

SEOUL: Samsung Electronics is expected to spend around $14 billion -- more than Iceland's GDP -- on advertising and marketing this year, but it doesn't always get value for money. 

The outlay buys the South Korean technology giant publicity in TV and cinema ads, on billboards, and at sports and arts events from the Sydney Opera House to New York's Radio City Music Hall. Google spent less on buying Motorola's handset business. 

And Samsung, which has a market value of $227 billion, has made no secret of keeping up its aggressive marketing and promotion splurge as it seeks to make its brand as aspirational as Apple's . But the money it's spending doesn't always bring the desired result. 

Last month, a Samsung-sponsored short-film contest finale at the Sydney Opera House received poor reviews for blatant product placement in a series of 'behind the scenes' videos. In Britain, viewers panned a product placement deal with ITV's popular X-Factor talent show. "Is this a singing competition or an extended Samsung advert?" asked Twitter user Ryan Browne. 

Earlier this year, Samsung's New York launch of its latest top-of-the-range Galaxy smartphone came under fire for being sexist, portraying giggling women chatting about jewelery and nail polish while the men discussed the new phone, and the company's new fridge and washing machine launch in South Africa drew similar complaints as it featured swimsuit dancers. 

"Samsung's marketing is too much focused on projecting an image they aspire to: being innovative and ahead of the pack," said Oh Jung-suk, associate professor at the business school of Seoul National University. "They are failing to efficiently bridge the gap between the aspiration and how consumers actually respond to the campaign. It's got to be more aligned." 

Samsung spends a bigger chunk of its annual revenue on advertising and promotion than any other of the world's top-20 companies by sales -- 5.4%, according to Thomson Reuters data. Apple spends just 0.6%, and General Motors 3.5%. 

"When your brand doesn't have a clear identity, as is the case with Samsung, to keep spending is probably the best strategy," said Moon Ji-hun, head of brand consultant Interbrand's Korean operation. "But maintaining marketing spend at that level in the longer term wouldn't bring much more benefit. No one can beat Samsung in terms of (ad) presence, and I doubt whether keeping investing at this level is effective." 

In a statement to Reuters, Samsung said it will "continue to leverage our brand power to maintain growth momentum, while focusing on optimizing the efficiency of our marketing activities," reiterating recent comments by its co-CEO. 

"Our product innovation and marketing strategy have made Samsung the world's most preferred smartphone brand," JK Shin, who also heads the group's mobile business, told investors recently. "Now we'll move from the most preferred brand to become one of the world's leading aspirational brands." 

Innovating, not following
Samsung's 'Next Big Thing,' and 'It's Time to Change' marketing campaigns stress that its products are cutting-edge, and even trumpet its technology 'world firsts' before they're ready for prime time, such as curved smartphones, available only in South Korea, and curved TVs that cost nearly $10,000. 

For a company long seen as a follower, this is now a big sell on it being an innovator. 

But, while Samsung has become the world's biggest advertiser, spending $4.3 billion on ads alone last year, its global brand value of $39.6 billion is less than half that of Apple, which spent only $1 billion on advertising, according to Interbrand and ad researcher Ad Age. 

To be sure, Samsung has a more diverse range of mobile products, which along with its chips and household appliance businesses need more marketing across different target audiences. But the heavy marketing spend suggests a need to convince consumers that it belongs at the top. Apple can afford to spend less as it already has that brand recognition, and cachet. 

"The stronger, more differentiated the product, the less it needs to be propped up by advertising," said Horace Dediu, founder of independent research firm Asymco and a former Nokia business development manager, referring to Apple's ad spend. 

Defending its marketing budget, Samsung can point to its lead in the global smartphone market - it sells one in every three smartphones and has more than double Apple's market share. The Korean group's savvy adverts mocking Apple devotees, and heavy investment in distribution channels have strengthened its Galaxy mobile brand. 

"The Galaxy brand has established itself, and the Samsung brand is now much stronger than Android or any of the other OEM brands, except Apple," said Benedict Evans, an independent technology and media consultant in London. "The underlying problem is that Samsung has established itself as a dependable quality brand, not a differentiated or premium quality product, so it does best where it's not competing directly with Apple." 

Samsung works with a number of advertising agencies, including Publicis Groupe , Interpublic Group , and MDC Partners . 

In low gear
Samsung's latest marketing splash has been on its Galaxy Gear smartwatch, which has been almost universally panned by reviewers. The device has been aggressively marketed through adverts and collaboration with fashion shows - yet only 800,000 Gears have been shipped since its launch two months ago. Compare that to the more than 5 million Note 3 smartphones that have been shipped since its late-September launch, and it suggests fewer than a fifth of the Note buyers are also buying the accessory device. 

Undeterred, Samsung has vowed more Gear promotions for the crucial year-end holiday season as it seeks to lead the wearable computer market and prove its innovation credentials. 

"Probably Samsung knows better than anyone that Gear will not become a mainstream product. Still, they are trying to convey the message that 'we are first with such technology,' which they hope will help build their brand as an advanced technology firm," said Interbrand's Moon. 

A deep-pocketed Samsung - it earned operating profit of $9.6 billion in the third quarter alone - is still pushing the envelope to win over consumers. 

This month, the big-spending official sponsor of the past eight Winter and Summer Olympics launched a fantasy-inspired soccer marketing campaign ahead of the mid-2014 World Cup in Brazil - selecting 11 of the world's top players, including Argentine striker Lionel Messi, for a virtual match to save Earth from aliens -- with the help of Galaxy devices
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Ericsson faces CCI probe on Micromax complaint

CCI will probe Ericsson for charging higher royalty on GSM technology patents, following a complaint by handset maker Micromax.

NEW DELHI: Fair trade watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) will probe telecom gear major Ericsson for alleged abuse of its dominant position in charging higher royalty on GSM technology patents, following a complaint by handset maker Micromax. 

CCI has ordered investigation into the matter after finding prima-facie evidence of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson indulging in unfair trade practices. 

Micromax had complained that Sweden-based Ericsson was demanding unfair, discriminatory and exorbitant royalty for its GSM technology-related patents. 

In its order, CCI has said that it is a "fit case for through investigation by the Director General into the allegations made by the informant (Micromax), and violations, if any, of the provisions of the Competition Act". 

It is prima facie apparent that Ericsson is dominant in the market of GSM and CDMA (telecom technology standards) in India and holds large number of such patents, said the CCI order dated November 12, but released today. 

As per the order, Ericsson has 33,000 patents to its credit, with 400 of these granted in India. The company was the largest holder of SEPs (Standard Essential Patents) for mobile communications technologies like 2G as well as 3G and 4G, used mainly used for smartphones and tablets. 

The Commission noted that since Ericsson held these SEPs and there was no other alternate technology in the market, the telecom equipment firm "enjoys complete dominance over its present and prospective licensees in the relevant product market." 

Micromax said it had received a notice from Ericsson on November 3, 2009 for infringing essential GSM patents of the company. 

The Commission observed that allegations regarding royalty rates make it clear that the practices adopted by the Ericsson were discriminatory as well as contrary to Frand (Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory) terms. 

"The royalty rates being charged by the Opposite Party (Ericsson) had no linkage to patented product, contrary to what is expected from a patent owner holding licences on Frand terms. 

"The Opposite Party seemed to be acting contrary to the Frand terms by imposing royalties linked with cost of product of user for its patents," the order said. 

Meanwhile, Ericsson had filed a civil suit against Micromax for alleged violation of patent rights. 

The Commission said that issues raised by Ericsson before the Delhi High Court were in respect of infringement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). 

"...this Commission has obligation and jurisdiction to visit the issues of competition law. Pendency of a civil suit in High Court does not take away the jurisdiction of the Commission to proceed under the Competition Act," the order said
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Smartphones set to get cheaper: IDC

According to IDC, the average smartphone selling price will drop 12.8% to $337 this year from $387 in 2012.

NEW DELHI: Global smartphone prices are declining steadily, particularly in the emerging markets where new handset manufacturers are focusing on low-cost devices as a way to build brand awareness. 

Analysts believe the current pricing trend will encourage more and more new users to buy low-cost smartphones rather than plain-vanillafeature phones. 
According to the latest IDC projections on price trends, the average smartphone selling price will drop 12.8% to $337 this year from $387 in 2012. Here's a look at the region-wise breakup...

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Why mid-sized IT firms are poaching senior executives from larger rivals

Mid-sized IT firms are poaching senior executives from larger rivals, forming a new partnership forged by ambition for rapid growth.

BANGALORE: Mid-sized technology services companies are poaching senior executives from larger rivals, forming a new partnership forged by ambition for rapid growth. The smaller companies are gaining management bandwidth with the skills to handle scale while the executives are handed powers they may not have had in a larger organisation. 

The best example of such a trend is Ashok Vemuri, who moved from Infosys, India's second-largest software exporter, to iGate, a firm that was one-sixth its size. As a member of the board and the head of key units, the 45-year-old may one day have become CEO of the Bangalore-based company, but there was no guarantee. Therefore Vemuri settled on a trade-off which allows him to conceptualise and implement his strategy in a way which he could not have done if he had continued at Infosys. 

"At every milestone - be it $5 million, $10 million or $50 million - a company needs a different escape velocity to move into the next orbit. But the kind of escape velocity that is needed to take it to the next orbit from a revenue size of $400-$500 million is very different," said NS Parthasarathy, co-founder and president at Mindtree, which has hired proactively from larger peers. 

Earlier this month, it hired Ramesh Pillai, an executive who spent about 13 years in HCL TechnologiesBSE 1.23 % and was heading segments such as automotive, aerospace and medical devices globally, to lead its hi-tech vertical. A month ago, it hired Paul Gottsegen from Infosys to lead its marketing and strategy. 

Similarly, another mid-sized IT company, NIIT Technologies, hired senior vice-president Sudhir Chaturvedi from Infosys as COO because of his experience across verticals and in scaling the businesses within Infosys to over $1 billion. Chaturvedi will help NIIT in its ambitions to grow from revenue of around 2,000 crore now to $1 billion by 2018. 

Despite analysts earlier questioning the future of mid-sized IT companies, they have proven themselves with consistent financial performance and marquee customers. These companies are also hungry for growth and are eager to get to the billion-dollar revenue club. 

"Mid-sized IT players have become more credible and they are now of a size where they can afford to pay top-dollar salaries," said CK Guruprasad, principal at executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles. "The leaders joining them have more often than not been with the large IT service providers for 10-12 years, from the time they were the size of these mid-sized companies. So they come with valuable perspective." 

The challenge was what prompted Raj Mamodia, who was part of Cognizant's global leadership team, to quit and join Collabera, a $450-million IT and professional services company, as CEO. Mamodia is now restructuring the business and thinking through a strategy that will differentiate and grow Collabera's IT services. 

"The clincher for me was the quality of the challenge. But you have to have the mental preparedness for it because it is a lot of work. Rewards are usually tightly coupled to performance," said Mamodia. "For me it was certainly attractive, and I know for many of my industry peers, it would be the same." 

Mindtree's chief people officer, Ravi Shankar, who has been instrumental in some of its recent hires and who himself joined a year ago from HCL Technologies, said the biggest motivation for the new leadership joining the company is the potential to build something and leave a mark
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Samsung Galaxy S5 to come in two variants: Report

One variant of the Galaxy S5 will have a metal body and bendable OLED screen, while the other model will have a plastic body.

NEW DELHI: Less than a week after the alleged metal frame of Samsung Galaxy S5 hit the internet, comes the report that Samsung is planning to launch the smartphone in two variants. According to South Korean newspaper ET News, while one variant of the Galaxy S5 will have a metal body and bendable OLED screen, the other model will have a plastic body similar to most existing Samsung phones.

The upcoming handset will go into mass production in January next year and will be released in March, says the ETNews report.

A report by technology website SamMobile says that one version of Galaxy S5 will runs on 64-bit Exynos chipset, while the other one will be powered by a Snapdragon chip. Other rumoured specifications of Samsung Galaxy S5 include a display with 2K resolution, 16MP camera, 4,000mAh battery and Android 4.4 (KitKat).

The ET News report also says that Galaxy S5 will be launched alongside the second-generation Galaxy Gear smartwatch. The original Galaxy Gear was launched in September this year. Its successor is said to be 15-20% thinner, though there is no information on its specifications.

Samsung recently announced that it has sold 8,00,000 units of Galaxy Gear smartwatch in two months globally.

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