Five Important Wall Street Q3 Results [Apple, Goldman, BoA, Citigroup, Yahoo]

Even as India Inc moves forward with its Q2 fiscal earnings, the top Wall Street companies are slowly oozing out with their Q3 results performance amid slowdown and deficit-reeling US economy.

While the global sentiment is mired by the unanimous downgrade of Spain’s creditworthiness by three credit rating agencies – Fitch Ratings, S&P and now even Moody’s; the Wall Street earnings have been no show-stealer amid mixed-bag of results with some banks doing well, while few others including Apple missing earnings forecast.

Let me summarize a few important Wall Street earnings performance over here:

Apple drags on lower iPhone sales

In a rare instance on missing its earnings forecast, Apple Inc reported a net profit of $6.62 billion (up 54% from $4.31 billion last year) on revenues of $28.3 billion, which came in a tad lower than Wall Street expectation of $30 billion, for its fiscal fourth quarter of this year.

At 17.7 million, Apple sold 21% more iPhones than last year during the July to September 2011 quarter, with no new next-generation iPhone and iPad releases. However, the iPhone sales fell short by 19% when compared with its previous quarter figures.

Goldman stutters with underwriting losses

Investment banker Goldman Sachs reported a quarterly loss of $428 million for the three months ended September 2011, run down by slump in its investment portfolio and fall in trading revenues. This was its second-ever quarterly loss in at least a decade, next only to post-Lehman era loss of $1.6 billion in Q4-2008.

Goldman’s net revenues came in at $3.59 billion, down 60% from $8.9 billion a year ago period. The Q3 results include $1.05 billion losses from investment in Industrial and commercial Bank of China. Its investment and lending business lost $2.48 billion during the quarter under review.

Bank of America prospers with one-time gains

Bank of America, the second biggest US bank by assets next only to JP Morgan Chase, posted a net profit of $6.23 billion. Revenues recorded a growth of 6% to $28.7 billion mostly led by one-time accounting gains related to debt valuations.

In the race to claim position of top-most American bank, Bank of America came in second with its $2.22 trillion in assets, behind JP Morgan Chase’s which reported assets of $2.29 trillion in this latest quarter.

Citigroup in the pink of health

Citigroup posted positive Q3 results with net income of $3.77 billion, up 74% from $2.17 billion in the corresponding quarter last year, backed by lower losses from loans and $1.9 billion from credit valuation adjustment gains.

Citigroup, which is fourth largest US bank, posted revenues of $20.8 billion, almost at par with its revenues clocked in the year-ago period. The bank’s losses from bad loans came down by 41% during the July-September quarter to $4.5 billion.

Yahoo beats estimates

Internet portal Yahoo announced its third quarter results with dwindling sales and profitability, led by growing prominence of social media platforms and Google search products. Yahoo Inc posted Q3 profit of $293 million, with search queries showing tepid growth.

Revenues for the third quarter came in at $1.07 billion, down 4.5% from $1.12 billion recorded last year for the September-end quarter. The revenues exclude traffic acquisition costs. The internet giant is aiming for more business partnerships to target growing monetization.

 

What’s wrong with BSNL – They have disconnected IDEA, Vodafone & others from their network!

Since last Saturday I am unable to make calls from my idea connection to any number on BSNL network connections. This is most likely due to the non-payment of interconnect usage charges (IUC) by Private Mobile Operators. IUC are essentially the charges paid by one operator to the other for using its network to complete calls and send SMSes. So when Idea consumer makes a call to BSNL network – Idea has to pay certain charges to complete its call to BSNL and vice-versa.

Here is the recording of message that I get when I try to make calls from my Idea Network to BSNL.

BSNL has lot of outstanding from various operators for very long time, and there is no doubt that private operators are responsible to pay BSNL, but that does not mean that users should get screwed for this issues between operators.

Infact, BSNL has defied the ruling of the appellate tribunal which has directed BSNL not to disconnect users from its network and had clearly stated that the operators shall continue to pay intra-circle carriage charges to BSNL at the same rate that they had been paying since July, 2010.

The question is – What should consumers do in such a scenario? Any answers?

Ice Cream Sandwich – Newest Android version with NFC Awesomeness!

The internet has been abuzz with the launch of Android’s latest Mobile Operating System and it comes in with lot of goodies including NFC or the Near Field Communication in form on Android Beam!

Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich seems to be the most polished Android ever. For the first time Android is talking about beauty and elegance. Thanks to Guy Kawasaki, Android is now enchanting. At least the Android team thinks it is.

There are some significant improvements to make things easier and to make the Android experience less geeky.

While there are more features of interest on ICS, here are the top 5 which makes things simpler :

People App

ICS’s new People app works on the contact list and gathers the social media activity. There are quite a few apps/startups who are working in this space. They want to make Address Book sexy again. Xobni Smartr is one such app. Drumbi is yet another app. Everyme is another intelligent social address book app. I hope Android is trying to answer all these apps with the People app.

Roboto

A new typeface completely worked from ground up. This gives Android a completely new look.

Android Beam

 

You can literally touch 2 ICS powered phones which are also NFC enabled to transfer content. If you are viewing a web page on phone A, then bring phone B and make it hug phone A and voila, the web page is on phone B. A new way to share things.

Think of Andriod Beam as Bluetooth and Bump without the pairing and with some excessive touch. The applications of nifty little NFC chips are just far too many…think mobile payments for one…

Quick response

This is a quick text message you can send to someone who called you at the wrong time. This is such a simple thing to implement, I wonder, why no one has implemented it till now. A simple feature phone like Samsung Corby had it much before than ICS. Better late than never.

Face Unlock

 

No more gestures and no more passwords. You can unlock your Android phone with just your smile. Now you got one more reason to smile.

There are features like single motion panoramic camera, taking the screen shot from the phone, WiFi Direct, rich notifications, multi tasking, recent apps and enhanced Google+ experience.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus is the first Ice Cream Sandwich powered phone.

Should you be buying Facebook and Twitter followers?

If you are not aware, it is true that many brands, businesses and individuals buy twitter and facebook followers to inflate their followers count.

Does buying fans and followers on social media sound unethical to you? Unethical or not, many small and large business who don’t have the time, patience or inclination to gradually build up a genuine following, are adapting this new trend of buying followers and fans for their social media pages. Here are a few things you should consider before you bulk buy for your social media.

 

Make a good impression

Have you noticed that you tend to "Like" something on Facebook more promptly if it already has a following of 30,000 people and it ‘looks’ popular? And sometimes, until you know of the product, service of the social media page personally, you’d generally be iffy on following a page that has only a handful likes or a few followers, isn’t?

Many businesses consider buying Facebook or Twitter followers not because that’s actually going to convert more lead for into sales them in the future, but for setting up random visitors psychologically that their page is popular, accepted and worth following.

More fans and followers but no interaction

You may end up buying fans and followers for increasing potential sales in your business but you can you buy interaction too? It’s extremely easy to recognize fake followers and fans if a visitor sees no interaction of your fans or followers with your brand.

There have been cases where paid fans and followers copy paste multiple comments, wall posts or tweets for various businesses. This becomes an immediate getaway to the fact that your popularity has been paid for, which may harm your reputation considerably.

Top search results within Facebook and Twitter

We wonder if having more followers can push you up in the ranks of search results in Google. But your chances of turning up in searches made within Facebook and Twitter can decrease considerably if you have more followers.

Again, it will also boil down to having good content on your Facebook or Twitter page because even if you manage to route traffic to your page by showing off popularity with large number of followers, you won’t be able to hold the visitor for long if nothing interests him/her.

Risk for negativity

Do you know what kind of harm you risk for your brand by buying followers for Facebook or Twitter? Imagine you woke up one morning to find out that a follower has posted for fun "Hey guys, I am a paid follower. Is anyone else paid here?" or "Get a better offer for following XYZ".

This could not only mean a complete waste of money for the followers you bought, but also a complete slur on the name of your brand. Your genuine followers will feel betrayed and never trust you again. There isn’t much potential for signing a contract with each individual follower to post only positive comments right?

Buy the target audience you want

One big advantage of buying Facebook and Twitter following though, is that businesses can select the range and profile of the type of fans and followers they want. For instance, if you have a beauty product to sell, you could specifically buy American women fans in the age group of 25-40 and so on (yes, there are services that give you that).

On the other hand, if you solely depend on building genuine traffic, you would probably take a long time to build up a following of potential customers and a target audience of the exact diversity and category that you would hope for.

It may sound like we’re sitting on the fence here, but it’s really a matter of every business’ ethics and policy to bulk buy followers on social media or not. Building genuine fans and followers who can regularly interact with your brand and actually consume your marketing communication sounds like a much better idea to us.

What’s your opinion? Should social media followers be bought?

Enterprises Adopting Gamification In Unique Ways!

"Gamification" framework has been embraced by a lot of companies in the recent years and the likes of Zynga, Foursquare, Badgeville have succeeded tremendously by either implementing gamification features for virality or for developing a relative royalty / reward system.

Personally, I am always fascinated by the applications of gamification in the workplace. I discussed in an earlier post how gamification can help brands expose their true work culture to prospective employees. Despite numerous success studies and sheer simplicity of gamification principles (perfect implementation is a tough ask though), there haven’t been too many case studies emerging where enterprises have implemented gamification techniques in unique and innovative ways to improve employee engagement or to make work FUN.

What is heartening to see is that some of the interesting gamification applications are coming from large scale enterprises like IBM, Deloitte, SAP AG etc. as these companies strive to take the boring out of the workplace. The applications range from very simple ones like awarding badges based on meeting specific milestones or morphing a CRM system to look like a golf course ( I personally loved this gamification implementation by SAP AG)

What you see in the image is an application that SAP provides its sales rep.  Golf Balls represent "leads" and have detailed information about the leads and users can drag these leads into the holes (assign the lead to a specific sales representatives)

Now there may not be something groundbreaking about this, but it sure sounds and looks fun instead of having a system wherein you fill data in lots of boxes and then assign a lead to a rep by choosing the name from a drop-down.

Badge based applications are the most commonly used when it comes to bringing gamification into the enterprise. Badge based applications can be highly customized but they tend to deliver one thing nonetheless – making the employee feel special. It can be in the form of bragging rights, recognition or monetary rewards but badges offer a sense of achievement (akin to becoming a mayor in Foursquare).

What are your thoughts on gamification in the enterprise? If  you are aware of more interesting cases where enterprises have implemented gamification techniques in interesting and unique ways, do share with us!

Brand Revitalization: How Burberry revitalized their brand.

Burberry is an iconic luxury brand established in 1856. Its Tartan pattern is one of the most creative contributions to the world of fashion. It is the 98^th most valuable brand in the world and has Royal warrants from the Queen herself.

But some time ago the Burberry brand almost lost its value and this was due to factors outside its control. In the 1990’s Burberry became the favorite apparel of choice of the English soccer Hooligans who used to travel across Europe to support their teams. These hooligans had habit of instigating violence after the matches and often looting stores across Europe. These hooligans found out that if they dressed in Burberry attire they were less likely to be picked up by the police in continental Europe.

In the 2000’s the trend spread to other youngsters from the inner city neighborhoods in the UK who were also inspired by the Gangster rap movement from the US. Finally Burberry became the apparel of choice of the Chav movement. The Chavs were prone to violent crimes and also social disturbances especially at the pubs. For more on this, please read.

Soon most social establishments including pubs banned Burberry. And soon Burberry sales started flagging as most self- respecting customers started avoiding Burberry.

Now why did this happen? Burberry had been worn by Gentlemen like Ronald Amundsen, the first person to reach South Pole. Then why did this iconic brand become the favorite among soccer hooligans, gangster and the Chav.

Well, the main reason was introduction of a line of clothing that was targeted at the youth. Especially the main culprit was the Burberry variant of the baseball cap. This line of clothing attracted the youth especially the gangster rap and Chav movement. Secondly in order to become more mass market, Burberry had lost its identity as fashion apparel and not one intended for the masses.

Luckily the brand took some painful steps and they can be summarized as the following

– Revitalized the brand as a fashion brand. Signed up leading actresses and models in the UK including Kate Moss, Agyness Deyn and Jourdan Dunn. Recently they unveiled Emma Watson as the face of 2009.

– Discontinued their mass market line especially the caps that were creating most of the problem. The reduction of this line and their non-availability to the gangs led to decline in their popularity among this segment.

– Associated heavily with leading fashion publications like GQ, esquire and Vogue.

These are some of the prominent steps revitalized the brand. There was also a change in management and in 2008 Burberry showed an increase in revenue despite economic down turn affecting the global economy.

Though Burberry survived, the Revitalization was strongly dependent on the association of the brand with luxury. Luckily for Burberry the association was strong. A weaker brand would not have survived.

It was difficult for me to find a brand in India, which as come back strongly, so I had to take example of Burberry – Do you recall any Indian brand which has revitalized itself like this ?

How should you make yourself stand out in an organization?

Are you armed with a degree from a good university in India or abroad? Look around, there are thousands more who have it too. If you are working in a mid-sized to a big organization, chances are that there will be more people in your workplace or office who will have degrees and qualification similar to yours.

Here’s the big question then… how do you make yourself stand out in an organization? Let’s look at some simple yet very effective tips that we all can use to really stand out and shine.

Offer suggestions when you’re not asked

Let’s suppose you overheard your bosses talk in their offices about an issue at work which happens to fall in your area of expertise. Their discussion is stuck at a point which only you know the answer to, or maybe their discussion is going the wrong way and you know the exact input they are looking for. But here’s the irony. You are not part of the discussion nor are you at a certain position in the organizational hierarchy to be able to take part in it. What do you do?

To stand out in an organization, feel free to give your inputs and ideas. If you think that your job can be done more efficiently, say it. Bosses and managers appreciate when their subordinates do and think more than ‘what they are told’.

Take responsibility and fix it

Have you noticed that when something goes right, everyone swoops in to take credit? However when something goes wrong, there will be no takers for the blame or responsibility?

It’s not surprising because it is human nature to avoid conflicts. Here’s your chance to stand out in your organization. If you’ve caused a blunder or have made a mistake, take responsibility for it. Rather than sulking about it, tell your boss that you will look into it and solve the problem. Managers and bosses appreciate when people ‘step up to the plate’.

What’s your special skill?

Everyone has a special skill or talent. Your talent could be analyzing charts while someone else’s could be making great presentations. Use your special skill and talent to stand out from the crowd in your organization. Turn a dormant skill into your company’s asset. Once your bosses are aware of your skills, they will notice you and have you at the back of their mind.

Take genuine interest in your work to gain personal satisfaction

This tip to help you stand out in an organization is all about bringing out your passion for your work. When you’re working on a project or task in your company, we suggest that you show and take genuine interest on a daily basis.

At the end of each day, look back and see what you’ve accomplished to gain personal satisfaction from your achievements. Why are we telling this to you? Because it is a fact that genuine interest and passion never goes unnoticed.

Don’t stay back at work

Contrary to popular belief in India that long hours equals more work, managers are now waking up to the fact that work can be done smartly and within normal working hours. If you have the need to stay back 2-3 hours every evening at work, it could also mean that you can’t get work done in time, as opposed to the thought of looking like a hard worker.

So stick to your work timings and finish your work load within these hours. This will also show to your boss that you have a life outside work.

Heed these tips and make yourself heard, seen and felt at your workplace!

We would be glad to hear any other tips that you have up your sleeve that makes you stand-out in an Organization!