“Controlling your direction is better than being controlled by it.” Jack Welch An entrepreneurs’ journey is riddled with potholes and unexpected events at every turn. Controlling your direction is not as easy as charting a plan and then sticking to it irrespective of what happens along the path. However, having a clear idea about the direction you are going in and why, is mandatory. It is critical on this path that the entrepreneur is adept and adaptable enough to be able to maneuver the direction of this ship. The word “pivot” is fast becoming a word with over…
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Most Topular Stories
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Charting the Course
Journey of a Serial Entrepreneur28 Apr 2012 | 9:46 pm -
Business Incubation: False Hopes and Shattered Dreams…
Green & White9 May 2012 | 1:28 pmWhen a 19th century romantic French writer by the name of Victor Hugo said “Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come” he obviously could not envision Pakistani bureaucracy. Not only can it reduce an idea to nothing more than its meager skeletal remains squirming in its own vile, it too often does. Come 2004, the IT bubble is about to burst in a military run, democratic, American influenced politically independent subcontinent country by the name of Pakistan. It is here in our story that along comes an idea. It is a simple idea yet revolutionary in every way, the idea to… -
P@SHA launches “Women in IT” Research
P@SHA15 May 2012 | 3:52 amDateline: May 14, 2012 The Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) held a press conference in Karachi today, to launch “Women in IT” – an exclusive research report published by P@SHA on working women in the Pakistan IT industry. Present at the event, representing P@SHA, were Nadeem Elahi (Chairman) Jehan Ara (President) and Nausheen Ishtiaq (Research [...] -
E-Panorama
CIOPakistan.com - Business Technology Leadership16 May 2012 | 2:50 am(For PCWorld Pakistan) Nokia Unveils Nokia 110 & Nokia 112 In a much anticipated evening, Nokia finally unveiled two handsets ‘globally’ from Pakistan – The Nokia 110 and Nokia 112. These phones were jointly presented… -
Birchbox and Changing the Way We Shop (Video)
Entrepreneur Update16 May 2012 | 9:47 amWhen Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna realized the flaws in the way women buy cosmetics, they started a company to revamp the system. Here, the Birchbox founders chat about their vision for the future of buying beauty and grooming products.
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Journey of a Serial Entrepreneur
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Charting the Course
28 Apr 2012 | 9:46 pm“Controlling your direction is better than being controlled by it.” Jack Welch An entrepreneurs’ journey is riddled with potholes and unexpected events at every turn. Controlling your direction is not as easy as charting a plan and then sticking to it irrespective of what happens along the path. However, having a clear idea about the direction you are going in and why, is mandatory. It is critical on this path that the entrepreneur is adept and adaptable enough to be able to maneuver the direction of this ship. The word “pivot” is fast becoming a word with over… -
Culture & Performance
24 Apr 2012 | 1:31 amA recent article in Fortune by Jack and Suzy Welch in which they say: “Soft culture matters as much as hard numbers. And if your company’s culture is to mean anything, you have to hang — publicly — those in your midst who would destroy it. It’s a grim image, we know. But the fact is, creating a healthy, high-integrity organizational culture is not puppies and rainbows. And yet, for some reason, too many leaders think a company’s values can be relegated to a five-minute conversation between HR and a new employee. Or they think culture is about picking which words — do we… -
Performance Optimization
23 Apr 2012 | 1:10 amGreat leaders have an inherent ability to distill complexity into simplicity. A great story which reflects this talent is attributed to steel magnate Charles M. Schwab. One day one of his floor managers came to him complaining about varied schemes he had attempted in order to increase the average output per shift, without any luck. After having listened to his strategies Mr. Schwab simply asked him one question “How many heats has the day shift completed?”. When he got “6″ as the answer he simply took a piece of chalk and wrote a big “6″ on the entrance… -
The Importance of Core Values
29 Jan 2012 | 9:20 amUnderstanding the importance of core values is something that I have been fascinated with ever since I read Jim Collins book, Good to Great. Core values form the foundation for businesses that persevere through time and major changes. An apt analogy is that of the growth of a tree; some trees have a quick growth spurts and on the surface seem majestic and beautiful. However, these trees have roots which do not support their level of growth and this impacts their ability to persevere over extended periods of time. Core values act as roots for companies, laying the foundation as it were. In an… -
Lessons Learned in 2011
31 Dec 2011 | 10:59 pmAs the clock turned to midnight, I paused for a moment and thought to myself, I wouldn’t trade places with anyone else at this moment in time….. I am pretty certain that in time when I look back at my journey as an entrepreneur, 2011 will be a defining year. It will be an year about which I will recount hundreds of stories and incidents that shaped and lay the foundation of things to come. This year has had its share of extreme highs and scary lows. It was a year in which I definitely felt alive every single day. A year I pushed myself to go outside established comfort zones and…
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Green & White
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Business Incubation: False Hopes and Shattered Dreams…
9 May 2012 | 1:28 pmWhen a 19th century romantic French writer by the name of Victor Hugo said “Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come” he obviously could not envision Pakistani bureaucracy. Not only can it reduce an idea to nothing more than its meager skeletal remains squirming in its own vile, it too often does. Come 2004, the IT bubble is about to burst in a military run, democratic, American influenced politically independent subcontinent country by the name of Pakistan. It is here in our story that along comes an idea. It is a simple idea yet revolutionary in every way, the idea to… -
Home & Cars Expo 2012
8 May 2012 | 3:24 amThe past whole week I was really excited about going to the exhibition on 5th and 6th at expo center Lahore since the theme read “home expo and super car expo”. I was counting on seeing some innovative home solutions, fancy cars and a lot of appliances for both. As I entered the arena, an ear piercing heavy bike engine race greeted me. Oh wow nice, we have bikes here too… and lots of them, but let’s see if we have the actual products that are expected. First cars!! Honda Launched its new City Aspire at the event. This attracted a lot of young crowd who wanted to check it from every… -
Rock the ball with Pepsi
26 Apr 2012 | 10:29 pmNOTE: This is a sponsored post Football. The most popular sport in the world. That may be hard to believe, we being a die-hard cricket nation, but there are many amongst us who get their blood pumping whenever our favorite team kicks some balls (pun intended). There’s excitement in the air, and the airwaves for that matter, when Spanish rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona are about to have a face-off on the field. Manchester United or Chelsea? The answer could incite either jeers or cheers, depending on who you’re surrounded by. It feels like you belong to an exclusive club really,… -
Another SHAM ICT Funding Project
25 Apr 2012 | 8:07 amThere are two main things that are currently causing out growth in ICT to stall. One is the lack of original ideas, so most of the entrepreneurs either copy what is already around internationally or locally (same ideas of online shopping, online bidding) we still have not hit the jackpot with someone creating some thing like instagram or drawsomething and being acquired by one of the big names. The second issue always lamented by entrepreneurs is lack of any funding sources in Pakistan. Over the years we have seen efforts being made to create funds which would help but what ended happening… -
8th Layer of Networking
22 Apr 2012 | 1:36 pmWe all know about the 7 layers of the OSI model. This is the framework by which computer networks are defined. Starting with the physical layer, going through the transport layer and finally culminating in the application layer where end user applications reside. I believe that this should be redefined to include and additional layer – the Social Layer. From the current vantage point, the Social Layer lies right above the Application layer – hence it is served by the Application layer. The 90s witnessed a boom in what is now referred to as web 1.0. This consisted of static applications…
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P@SHA
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P@SHA launches “Women in IT” Research
15 May 2012 | 3:52 amDateline: May 14, 2012 The Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) held a press conference in Karachi today, to launch “Women in IT” – an exclusive research report published by P@SHA on working women in the Pakistan IT industry. Present at the event, representing P@SHA, were Nadeem Elahi (Chairman) Jehan Ara (President) and Nausheen Ishtiaq (Research [...] -
P@SHA Speaker Series on Product Strategy – the 5 Hacks for Success
7 May 2012 | 4:29 amDateline: Saturday, May 5, 2012 P@SHA arranged for an interactive session on Product Strategy with Shuja Keen this month in Lahore and Karachi (the Lahore session was held on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 and the Karachi session was held on May 5, 2012). Shuja Keen, who is a graduate of MIT Sloan School of Management [...] -
C-Square implements Genesys Contact Centre Solution at NSIA Bank
7 May 2012 | 12:46 amOur Member company C-Square Consulting (Pvt) Limited has recently deployed an end-to-end Genesys-based Contact Centre Solution at Groupe Nouvelle Société Interafricaine D’assurance (NSIA). The success story was covered by Business Recorder. Read the whole story here. -
P@SHA Chairman Nadeem Elahi at the Euronet E-banking Conference 2012
1 May 2012 | 11:36 pmThe Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) recently supported Total Communications’ 10th Euronet E-banking Conference. The conference and exhibition was held on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 in Karachi. “The change in the public sector is not as high as it should be, but the government is striving to achieve automation in the public sector offices. Apart [...] -
Bayt.com collaborates with KCompute for its mobile version of its popular Job search site
23 Apr 2012 | 11:04 pmKCompute, an accomplished IT services and solutions company having expertise of launching Internet based business models for its customers, has recently announced the launch of new Bayt iPhone application developed in collaboration with Bayt.com. Bayt.com is the Middle East’s #1 job site, connecting job seekers with employers looking to hire. Every day, thousands of new [...]
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CIOPakistan.com - Business Technology Leadership
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E-Panorama
16 May 2012 | 2:50 am(For PCWorld Pakistan) Nokia Unveils Nokia 110 & Nokia 112 In a much anticipated evening, Nokia finally unveiled two handsets ‘globally’ from Pakistan – The Nokia 110 and Nokia 112. These phones were jointly presented… -
E – Panorama
15 May 2012 | 2:54 am(For PCWorld Pakistan) Get Cyber Information at Cyber Secure Pakistan 2012 Pakistan Information Security Association (PISA), in collaboration with UltraSpectra (Pvt.) Ltd., is organizing a one day international conference named “Cyber Secure Pakistan 2012.” The conference will… -
Terrabiz Hosts Supply Chain Conference in Karachi
14 May 2012 | 3:12 amJointly organized by the Supply Chain Association of Pakistan (SCAP) and Terrabiz, the Supply Chain Conference 2012 was held on the 8th & 9th of May at the Marriott Hotel, Karachi. The two day conference, first… -
And Now We Have a Tweeting KESC!
14 May 2012 | 2:54 amYou know it is summer time when half your day is spent cursing KESC! Everyone around us has a load-shedding or power breakdown story to share whether it’s about pending work, sleepless nights or appliances going kaput! In addition to… -
From Photoshare to Slideshare
14 May 2012 | 2:06 am(For PCWorld Pakistan) Joining the league of social media startups only recently, is Present.me. As compared to its predecessors that have penetrated the market by bulk in the last few months, Present.me is on a slightly different route. The others…
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Entrepreneur Update
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Birchbox and Changing the Way We Shop (Video)
16 May 2012 | 9:47 amWhen Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna realized the flaws in the way women buy cosmetics, they started a company to revamp the system. Here, the Birchbox founders chat about their vision for the future of buying beauty and grooming products. -
How JackThreads Plans to Own the Male Demographic (Video)
16 May 2012 | 9:46 amOther than dispel the idea that men don't like shopping, flash-sale site founder Jason Ross is hoping to train his company's energy on making a one-stop-lifestyle-shop for men. -
Skillshare and Changing the Way We Learn (Video)
16 May 2012 | 9:46 amLearning doesn't have to end at graduation. Here's how Malcolm Ong and Michael Karnjanaprakorn built a business that aims to put learning first. -
Finding the Best Time to Post to Social Networks
16 May 2012 | 9:34 amPopular URL shortening service bitly examines the peak times to post to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. -
How Retail Businesses Can Use Gamification to Engage with Customers (Video)
16 May 2012 | 6:00 amGabe Zichermann offers examples of how gaming elements can help retail owners engage with customers and market their businesses.
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Holy Kaw!
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Mammals may not get to cool climates in time
16 May 2012 | 12:09 pmNine percent of the Western Hemisphere’s mammals—and up to 40 percent in some regions—may not be able to outpace climate change. “I think it’s important to point out that in the past when climates have changed—between glacial and interglacial periods when species ranges contracted and expanded—the landscape wasn’t covered with agricultural fields, four-lane highways and parking lots, so species could move much more freely across the landscape,” says Joshua Lawler, associate professor of environmental and forest sciences at University of… -
Time of year matters for vitamin D risk
16 May 2012 | 12:08 pmWhen considering a patient’s blood vitamin D levels, it may be best to consider a lower threshold for concern, as well as the time of year. "In evaluating health risk," the University of Washington researchers conclude, "season-specific targets for Vitamin D blood concentration may be more appropriate than a static target when evaluating patients health risk." Full story at Futurity. More research news from top universities. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
The (not so correct) anatomy of sea life
16 May 2012 | 11:52 amMarine biology, scharine schiology. Pleated Jeans skips scientific facts for its series of sea life diagrams. Via Pleated Jeans. (H/T @laughingsquid) Laughing is good for you. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
The mechanics of eclipses [infographic]
16 May 2012 | 9:11 amWhen the moon passes in front of sun, as viewed from Earth, the eclipse that occurs is visible from a narrow path on Earth that corresponds to the location of the moon's shadow. During a total solar eclipse, this path is known as the path of totality. WARNING: Never look directly at the sun during an eclipse with a telescope or your unaided eye. Severe eye damage can result and scientists use special filters to safely view the sun. Via Space. The view from space. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Clean air improves heart health, Olympics show
16 May 2012 | 8:39 amUsing the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a lab, researchers found evidence that even short-term reduction in air pollution exposure improves a person’s cardiovascular health. “Beijing is one of the most polluted cities in the world, and the Chinese government had proposed to reduce pollution levels to be comparable to other Olympic host cities,” says USC Professor Junfeng (Jim) Zhang. “We wanted to take advantage of such a huge intervention and look at what happens to people biologically.” Full story at Futurity. More research news from top universities. Permalink |…
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OnStartups
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Building It Is Not Enough: 5 Practical Tips On User Acquisition
2 May 2012 | 11:25 amThe following is a guest post by Brian Balfour, Co-Founder and CMO of Boundless. You can read more of his writing on his blog at BrianBalfour.com. Stories about the growth of "hot" startups such as Facebook, Instagram, AirBNB, and others have created a belief that if you build the right product, customer acquisition will be easy. Don't be fooled. These stories are the exception, not the rule, and don't tell the entire story of the immense effort it took to grow their customer bases. Finding scalable acquisition channels is a time consuming and strategic effort. If you build it, they may not… -
Startup Founders: Don't Freak Out
26 Apr 2012 | 12:57 pmWhen I was working on building my first startup, Really Bad Things(TM) happened on an alarmingly regular basis. I was in my early 20s and living in Birmingham, Alabama (where there was no startup ecosystem at the time). So, when something happened that we thought would quite possibly kill the company, one of us (I had a co-founder) would freak out. Sometimes, both of us would freak out. Sometimes, we would freak each other out. Then, we would ultimately decide to take the Scarlett O'Hara (Gone With The Wind) approach — “I'll think about that tomorrow” and get back to work. -
Don't Make Raising Angel Funding Your Plan B
16 Apr 2012 | 8:20 amThe following is a guest post by Chris Sheehan. Chris is a seed stage VC and angel investor at CommonAngels. You can follow him on Twitter at @c_sheehan and his blog Early Stage Adventures. I wear two hats one as a general partner of a couple of seed stage VC funds, the other as an occasional angel investor. Wearing my angel-investing hat, I wanted to highlight an issue that I encourage founders to be careful about when pitching. There are variations on the theme, but essentially it's a line that goes something like: “…we've talked to some VCs who are really interested, but they… -
Fall In Love With Your Business, Not Your Business Plan
30 Mar 2012 | 8:40 amThat business plan, that business plan, I do not like that business plan. I do not like the writing part, I do not even like to start. I do not like them at a bar, I do not like them from afar. ~Dharmesh (with h/t to Dr. Seuss, who I read every day to my son) My feelings on business plans varies: from extreme dislike to just mild irritation. I don't think business plans are completely useless, just mostly so. And sometimes, they're even dangerous. Here's why… 1. Business plans are energy-depleting exercises. When I went to MIT Sloan for business school, I took what was (and is) one of… -
Avoiding Founder Failure: 26 Quick Tips and Real Data
26 Mar 2012 | 6:20 amSeveral years ago, I met with Noam Wasserman who had recently joined Harvard Business School as a professor. I initially came across Noam because he was doing some fascinating research on startups -- particularly in the arena of founder relationships. When I met him for lunch, he brought up some of the toughest issues I've ever encountered in my entrepreneurial career: Should you start a company with a close friend or family-member? Is it wise to divide equity in the startup equally among the founders? If you had to pick, do you want the cash (get rich) or the control…
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TechCrunch
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Viacom Gives Up Fight Against Time Warner Cable, Adds Channels to TWC iPad App
16 May 2012 | 12:35 pmCustomers of Time Warner Cable have some reason to rejoice today, as the cable company has gotten the go-ahead to add channels like MTV, VH1, and Comedy Central to its live streaming iPad app. The addition comes after the channels’ owner Viacom has settled its differences and resolved litigation with Time Warner Cable. The legal fight erupted last year, after Time Warner Cable released its iPad app, which lets subscribers stream live shows to tablets inside their homes. While many networks grumbled about the app, Viacom was most vocal in rejecting the app, taking its distribution… -
How Many Daily Downloads Does It Take To Reach The Top Of The App Store?
16 May 2012 | 12:01 pmIt’s hard to underestimate how important ranking in Apple’s top 25 in the iTunes store is for mobile app developers. After all, the top 25 is probably the single most important app discovery mechanism for most iOS users. But how many downloads does it take to rank in the top 25? Mobile app store analytics firm Distimo today published some interesting data that answers just this question. Turns out, in the U.S. store, the answer currently is about 38,400 daily downloads for free iPhone apps and 3,530 for paid iPhone apps. To rank in the top 25 per category, of course, takes… -
Third Pivot’s The Charm? Events Site Ravn Becomes Flash Sales Site Touch Of Modern
16 May 2012 | 11:34 amNo one ever called a limit on the number pivots a company can do, right? So here’s the latest at a company we’ve been watching for a while now. RAVN, an event planning and sharing app that itself was the product of a pivot from the developers behind “experiences marketplace” Skyara, has sent a letter out to its users telling them that the app is getting shut down at the end of this month. In RAVN’s place, the founders are starting up yet another business — their third — also loosely based around events but with a decidedly more commercial bent: a… -
This Won’t End Well: Toyota Connects With Nintendo DS For In-Car Navigation Interface
16 May 2012 | 11:31 amFor some inexplicable reason, Nintendo and Toyota have teamed up to turn the Nintendo DS into a navigational remote control, thereby allowing drivers (although I hope passengers do most of the fiddling) to set their routes using their game consoles. The service, called Kuruma de DS lets you see map and destination info as well as tour information as you drive through town. The service slightly gamifies the experience by adding a POI saving option. The compatible Toyota Smart Navi system costs about $3,000 while the game itself costs $92 – quite a bit of cash to simulate the map screens… -
Forrester: 32.1 Million U.S. Households Now Access Online Video On Their TVs
16 May 2012 | 11:04 amAlmost 115 million households in the U.S. currently own at least one TV set and 36 million own four or more. That’s a huge market and as Apple, Google and Microsoft try to wrestle more of this business away from the traditional content and hardware players, the old-school cable and satellite providers now suddenly have to content with this new group of challengers that, until now, barely registered on their radars. According to Forrester analyst James McQuivey, it’s Microsoft that’s winning this platform war so far. Why? Microsoft, MCquivey argues, currently has a massive…
